June 25, 2014
Rupert - I've really enjoyed reading the McClure's Magazine account
of the Fast Mail. Thank you so much for posting. The article is "timeless" and
puts the reader right along side the crews in the bouncing cabs and
RPO cars as the Q and C&NW engines hurtle through the night with the US Mail
coupled behind.
So much fascinating history has been forgotten, if not lost, to succeeding
generations. I want to personally thank you for your contributions in preserving
Q history so that today's List members who will take the time can catch a
glimpse of our great-grandfather's era (and for our younger members, their
g-g-grandfather's) and how everyday railroading was accomplished. Can
you imagine such an event taking place today?
Here's a photograph from my Dad's collection showing Q Class A-6 4-4-0
type No. 550 with four wooden RPO cars racing along the mainline near Council
Bluffs, IA, with the Fast Mail on September 5, 1897.
Collection of M.L. Zadnichek
With all the Q and C&NW participants who competed so hard to
operate the Fast Mail now long in their graves and all the equipment long
since scrapped, we still very fortunately have McClure's Magazine to take
us back to those halcyon days on the high iron. What an EXCITING time it must've
been.....
Louis Zadnichek II
Fairhope, AL
In a message dated 6/18/2014 5:56:49 P.M. Central Daylight Time,
CBQ@yahoogroups.com writes:
If you are interested in the
operation of the Fast Mail and
the battle between the Burlington and the C&NW for the lucrative
Chicago-Omaha mail contract, there is an article on the subject in McClure’s
Magazine April 1899
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951001906754x#view=1up;seq=493
As well as the reporter’s
description of the trip, there are some line drawings showing the operation of
the RPO.
Rupert Gamlen
Auckland NZ
