Mail and Baggage Car #1016

Mail and Baggage Car number 1016 was built in 1914 for the Michigan Central, an important part of New York Central Lines. It was built by the Standard Steel Company in Butler, Pennsylvania and was assigned to carry baggage and mail on passenger trains. One end served as a railway post office where mail was sorted en route. An arm could be extended from the door, allowing mail bags to be picked up from depots without needing to stop the train. At stations where the train did stop, if postal patrons didn’t get their letter to the post office in time for it to be taken to the depot, it could be dropped through a mail slot in the side of the car while the train paused at the station. This car was eventually converted to a work train car. In 1989, Car 1016 was in a scrap yard in Lansing, Michigan and was purchased by the Kalamazoo Lakeshore and Chicago Railroad which operated out of Pawpaw, Michigan. The car then was acquired by the Lakeshore Railroad Historical Foundation and moved to the museum, arriving in September, 1996.