Nostalgia & History > Christmas Mail near Colfax 1960

X6238 East a few miles east of Colfax back in 1960. The train just has express boxcars and a couple of other mail related cars.

Robert Morris
Dunsmuir, CA
Robert Morris Photography

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Just imagine all those Sears Roebuck, Montgomery Ward, and J C Penny Christmas Catalogs in tow. Those days were fun.

A great shot of the holiday mail trains once needed and run by the railroads.

alongthejointline Wrote:
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> Just imagine all those Sears Roebuck, Montgomery
> Ward, and J C Penny Christmas Catalogs in tow.
> Those days were fun.

That late in the year it wouldn't be the catalogs they were carrying but more likely the stuff ordered from those catalogs!

PHall Wrote:
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> alongthejointline Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Just imagine all those Sears Roebuck,
> Montgomery
> > Ward, and J C Penny Christmas Catalogs in tow.
> > Those days were fun.
>
> That late in the year it wouldn't be the catalogs
> they were carrying but more likely the stuff
> ordered from those catalogs!

Good call Mr Hall.

AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

Were the Overnight cars ever pressed into express service on these trains, or did they stay with their own kind?

During the Korea War, saw many a mail train on Santa Fe to Los Angeles using Refers. Mail - packages to the troops.

AKA Santa Claus trains.
 

mundo Wrote:
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> During the Korea War, saw many a mail train on
> Santa Fe to Los Angeles using Refers. Mail -
> packages to the troops.

Using reefers to haul mail on the backhaul was pretty common all year long. Many a magazine was carried west by a reefer.

Until about 1966, SP ran a fleet of mail and express trains to accomodate the Christmas rush.  They were called HM&E trains (Holiday Mail and Express trains or Ham and Eggs trains by the crews)  The trains consisted of mixed 40 foot plain boxcars, some baggage cars, and a few express reefers.  The LA to El Paso trains picked up cars at Pomona, Colton, Indio, Yuma, Phoenix, and Tucson, and at the peak of the xmas season ran up to 40 cars per train.  

Norm

Norman Orfall
Helendale, CA
TIOGA PASS, a private railcar

Great shot!

RC Lundgren

Any freight cars in the consist got the crew, freight pay instead of passenger pay ( thin wallet pay as Nudge called it)