Above, No. 3401 is loaded
with equipment
in San Antonio in preparation for a trip to Dallas and the filming of
Breaking
Home Ties, a made-for-TV movie starring Jason Robards.
Photo by Tom Marsh.
Santa Fe placed its order for
baggage-RPO No.
3401 and sister car No. 3402 with the Budd Co. in August 1937, and the
streamlined cars were delivered in April 1938. Originally
assigned
to the Kansas Cityan and Chicagoan, the 3401 eventually
saw
service on many ATSF trains, including the Chicago to Houston Texas
Chief. The 3401 is one of the earliest streamlined RPO cars
built
for any railroad.
The 1960s saw the end of most
railroads contracts
with the U.S. Post Office for carriage of mail. As the mail moved
to trucks and airplanes, many of the cars were scrapped. A number
of Santa Fe cars were sold to the Penn Central, which continued RPO
service
on the Northeat's shorter hauls for some years after the Post Office
had
quit using RPOs on most railroads. Fortunately for the museum,
No.
3401 was not sold, and Santa Fe donated the car in 1968.
In 1988, Gulf Coast Chapter NRHS
marked No. 3401's
50th birthday with a special celebration at the Gulf Coast Railroad
Museum.
The U.S. Postal Service was on hand in the car to cancel special covers
commemorating No. 3401's postal career.
Above, a view of the interior.
Below, the movie train enroute to
Dallas behind
an A-B-A set of Texas Southern F-units. The stainless steel
streamlined
cars were used in the actual filming.
Norm Schultze photo from the Gary
Stuebben
collection.
