TRRA H&TS Magazine
Issues 49-50 - Winter/Spring 1999

There is nothing worse than the telling of only half of a story. Thusly, with this issue our subject veers just a bit away from being mostly a story about St. Louis railroading. Moving mail was nearly as important to the Terminal Railroad as was the movement of freight and passengers.

Any story about moving mail on the Missouri Pacific requires that the subject necessarily wander from St. Louis and the Terminal Railroad to Poplar Bluff, Little Rock, Texarkana, and Ft. Worth. While there were undoubtedly mail trains that went west from Ft. Worth to El Paso and California, for this story Ft. Worth was as far west as we travel.

Of particular interest in the story is the ICC report which was compiled following the hearings in Washington, D.C. as both sides presented their case for trains 3-4. With MoPac's claim that the Post Office was paying $2.4 million for moving the mail, one wonders who was to blame for the final result.

Certainly, ordering one hundred new baggage and mail cars would indicate that the railroad had faith that the Post Office would continue to move mail by train. Moreover, the MoPac only followed the TRRA's lead when the latter spent millions more on the new conveyor mail system for sorting and routing mail.

The Editor's Page
      Page 2

St. Louis Union Station News
      Page 3

Moving Mail on the MoPac
      Missouri Pacific Nos. 3-4 Was An Ozark Original
      Pages 4-35

Creeping Rails on the Eads Bridge
      From the June, 1899 Locomotive Engineering Magazine
      Submitted by Thomas T. Taber, III
      Page 36

Yard Report
      Dennis Smith
      Page 37

We Get Letters
      Page 39

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Last Update: Wed, 15 Aug 2001 by Rich Zellich