IMAGE
RAIL: FREIGHT
 
#71 St. Louis – Southwestern Cotton Belt Mail Express Car
American Car & Foundry
TYPE
Mail Express Car
BUILDER
American Car and Foundry built this 60' long mail/express car for about $8,000. It weighs 80,000 pounds, has a wooden body and its underframe is also wood with a steel center sill.  The truss rods visible along the sides below the floor are bolted through the end sills and strengthen the underframe. The turnbuckles that join the two ends of each rod at the center of the car can be adjusted to keep the car's body straight and level. The railway post office markings show that the separate 15' long mail "apartment," as the post office called it, met the standards for handling U.S. mail. The mail catcher arm on its door could pick up sacks of first class mail at speeds of up to 80 miles per hour. Donated by the St. Louis - Southwestern Ry in 1952.