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Rich, You are absolutely correct. The caption in the CB&Q Flickr account matches that of the Center for Rail Photography and Art caption. This is a Wallace W. Abbey photo in their collection. I can't find October 9, 1950, being a date of any significance in the history of the Empire Builder or GN for that matter. I don't doubt that the photo was taken on that date, however. Looking at the consist, there is a Ranch car back there, along with one of the Mountain-series obs cars on the end (check out this link for a super blown-up version: https://www.flickr.com/photos/railphotoart/25356023480/sizes/6k/). Those cars started being delivered in October 1950, so perhaps this is the first one of the train featuring those cars. This isn't the full Mid-Century EB, though. There is still the 1947 RPO at the front, and the dining car is the 1947 version. Another hint that the photo can't be any earlier than September 1950 is lead E8 9947B as that is when it rolled out of the LaGrange erecting hall. Also, there is one bilevel coach visible on the left hand side and the first 25 came in 1950 as well. All that said, this *may* be the first run with a Ranch car or the Mountain obs, but the true first run of the complete Mid-Century EB was June 3rd, 1951. I think the caption may have been embellished a bit. Bryan J. Howell Superior, WI
On Saturday, September 18, 2021, 01:30:38 PM CDT, Richard Gortowski via groups.io <rgortowski=aol.com@groups.io> wrote:
If this is the first run of the mid-century Builder, the date is wrong. The first run was June 3rd, 1951. The Builder between St Paul and Chicago on Q tracks did have the RPO car. Definitely a stunning train.
Rich G.
-----Original Message-----
From: Bryan Howell via groups.io <tubaman21=yahoo.com@groups.io> To: CBQ@groups.io Sent: Sat, Sep 18, 2021 11:33 am Subject: Re: [CBQ] RPO storage mail for Chicago leg of Builder? The 1950 photo is the first westbound run of the Mid-Century Empire Builder. At the time, the GN RPO did run through. Eventually they took it off at St. Paul to give the clerks more time to work. The storage mail cars ran through as well once the Milwaukee stopped handling it St. Paul to Chicago. I don't have that date handy. The NP RPO always ran through since it also contained the crew dorms. However, it was not staffed St. Paul-Chicago. Even with the loss of the mail routes, the NP RPO-Dorms continued to run on the NCL into the BN era due to the crew dorms. If it wasn't on the train, the crew would have been accommodated elsewhere on the train or in a dedicated substitute car.
Bryan J. Howell
Superior, WI
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