The Golden Gate Railroad Museum (GGRM) has in its collection the last surviving RPO car from the Southern Pacific streamliner City of San Francisco. Unusually, the car retained all of its interior mail fixtures. Of thousands of RPO cars built, very few still exist, making this car very unique. GGRM members and several retired RMS clerks are restoring the railway car to represent a working RPO. A plaque dedicating the car to these men and those that worked the railway mail will be presented at a ceremony during the event. The Railway Post Office will be an official USPS postal station for the day. Visitors can bring mail to this historic railroad car and have a unique cancel applied commemorating Owney and the Railway Mail Service. Commemorative Caches and postcards will also be available for purchase. The RPO and several other historic railway cars will be on display at the Niles Canyon Railway depot in the Historic Niles District of Fremont on Saturday, July 30, 2011 from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM.

Leading up to this event, GGRM will be at the Niles Dog Show on Saturday, July 16, “looking for Owney,” and will present a prize to the dog which looks most like him.  Click here for the full schedule.

Special Postal cancellation to mark the issue of a stamp commemorating Owney, the Railway Post Office Dog. Ceremony dedicating the Restored Railway Post office to the retired Railway Mail Clerks. Free admission.