Railway Post Office

Car Dedication Planned

DANBURY — The Danbury Railway Museum will host the 2nd annual Danbury Railroad Day on Saturday, August 9. A day full of educational activities and train rides for the whole family is planned from 10 am and to 5 pm.

Admission is $8 for adults ($7 for museum members), and free for ages 3 and under free.

This year’s festivities have special meaning in that the museum will officially dedicate the newly-restored Pennsylvania Railroad Railway Post Office (RPO) Car.

The celebration of the restoration of the circa 1920 RPO car will be the highlight of the day.  An RPO car was a US Post Office on rails, staffed by the elite clerks of the Railway Mail Service (RMS). It was the backbone of rapid mail delivery in this country for much of the 20th Century. In 1930, more than 10,000 trains were used to move the mail into cities, towns, and villages throughout the United States. A visit inside this unique car is a trip back in history.

As a fitting honor of the occasion, the U.S. Postal Service will offer a special one day only stamp cancellation which will be applied to stamped envelopes by a USPS clerk manning the car. Special envelopes picturing the car will be available in the museum and the USPS will be selling stamps during the day. The special cancellation is free.

A formal dedication ceremony at 1:30 will include remarks by Dr Frank Scheer, curator of the Railway Mail Service Library in Boyce, Va. The library’s mission is to help preserve resources pertaining to this vital conduit for America’s growth.  The library is located in a former Norfolk & Western Railroad station which, fittingly, later served as the town’s post office.

Also during Railroad Day, the museum’s Rail Yard Local will be operating, offering short trips on a vintage train pulled by a 60 year old locomotive, with locomotive cab rides also available. The train will stop at the old New Haven RR turntable where visitors will ride the only operating turntable in Connecticut, built circa 1914. As a special treat, periodically during the day, demonstrations of coupling and uncoupling train cars will take place (with some audience participation).

In the Danbury museum building, visitors can explore railroad history exhibits, operating electric train layouts, static model displays of the station and railyard, many unique artifacts of railroading history, a wonderful gift shop, a coloring table and temporary tattoos for the kids, and many other items of interest.

A new exhibit, “The Legacy of Artist John Fleming Gould (1906-1996),” is being shown at the museum through the end of the year.

Outside in the historic railyard, guests will find walk-through exhibits, food and refreshments, “hit-and-miss” engine and blacksmithing/forge demonstrations, an operating “Large Scale” garden railroad, and a vast assortment of train cars and locomotives, many that ran in Danbury during its railroading heyday.

The Danbury Railway Museum is a non-profit organization, staffed solely by volunteers, and is dedicated to the preservation of, and education about, railroad history. The museum is located in the restored 1903 Danbury Station and rail yard at 120 White Street.

For further information, visit danbury.org/drm, send email to info@DanburyRail.org, or call the museum at 778-8337.