Nostalgia & History > Warbonnet Wednesday: Fast Mail into Newton

A nice way to start off the day: My favorite SFe passenger train, even if it only carried a single coach on the rear end. I believe the unknown photographer was standing at the E 7th St crossing, just west of the Mop crossing in Newton. Some of the tracks here have been removed…

1. AT&SF 336L leads train #7, the “Fast Mail” into Newton, KS in September of 1962.
Originally in the Tony Fey collection, photographer is unknown.

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels
santafe199



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/05/26 05:51 by santafe199.

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Love it!
Bryan

I understand why so many fans love the Fast Mail.  It was a profound contrast between the smart styling of the warbonnet Fs and the livery of heavy weights entailed behind.  Kind of makes me wonder, who had rights over it?  It had to be a money maker for the Passenger Traffic Dept.

Great catch on uncharictaristic weed grown Santa Fe track.
JB

My kind of train!  Mail trains were really cool with the wide variety of equipment in the consists.

Bob

And not only heavyweights, but foreign road mail baggage cars including NYC, PRR, MP, possibly others at various times.
\
The rider coaches - the 2600 series, were immortalized by Rivarossi as 'combines' in both HO and N.   Originally buffet-libraries, rebuilt.   Two survive in excursion service on the Texas State RR.   They were never air conditioned or really upgraded.   A couple more are out there in museums.   As they survived in regular service into 1967, they lasted a lot longer in maintenance than many other heavyweights.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/05/26 07:46 by randgust.

When I look at this shot, I get the feeling of a warm dry heat, and maybe a hint of creosote in the air.  Nicely done!

Track lurking off to the far right is the transfer to the MoPac where both roads interchanged a good amount of traffic. 

Lovely looking train; looks like it was photographed yesterday.

Tom

Hou74-76 Wrote:
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> I understand why so many fans love the Fast Mail.
>  It was a profound contrast between the smart
> styling of the warbonnet Fs and the livery of
> heavy weights entailed behind.  Kind of makes me
> wonder, who had rights over it?  It had to be a
> money maker for the Passenger Traffic Dept.

The Fast Mail was just that, a very fast train.  The eastbound train left LAUPT at 11:59 PM and ran on a schedule faster then the Super Chief.  It had rights over everything. Information from the book "The Last of the Great Stations" by Bill Bradley published by Interurban Press