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Celebrate the Century Express to stop in town

The iron ambassador for the U.S. Postal Service’s Celebrate the Century commemorative stamp and education program will make two whistle stops in Arizona.

On May 31, the train will park at the Grand Canyon Depot, near the South Rim where it will be open for public tours from 10 a.m. -5 p.m.

The train will then travel to Williams, where on June 2-4 it will park at the Williams Depot, 231 N. Grand Canyon Blvd., and be open for public tours on Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m.-7 p.m., and Sunday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. The Post Office at Grand Canyon and Williams will each host a ceremony to welcome the train to the community.

The Celebrate the Century Express, a specially outfitted four-car Amtrak train, rolls into the Grand Canyon and Williams as part of an 118-month tour around the country. Last year the CTC Express traveled more than 13,000 miles of track, visiting 36 cities in 18 states and more than 150,000 people, including thousands of school children.

A colorfully painted Amtrak diesel locomotive pulls a restored vintage Railway Post Office (RPO) car, a stamp exhibit car with educational, multimedia displays, a classic business car and a baggage car. Admission to the exhibits is free. Celebrate the Century commemorative stamps will be available for sale at the event.

“The Celebrate the Century Express is a colorful history museum on rails and highlights the U.S. Postal Service’s traditional role of binding the nation together through universal mail service,” said Barbara Conides, Williams postmaster. “We’re excited to provide residents of Williams, Grand Canyon and the surrounding area with the chance to climb aboard and learn about our nation’s history.”

The Celebrate the Century stamp and education program honors some of the most memorable and significant people, places, events and trends of each decade of the 20th century. The stamps themselves — which will be available for sale from a retail stamp store located outside of the train — provide a history lesson about America’s past 100 years. Visitors will also get a look at how mail once rode the rails aboard a vintage 1926 RPO car, donated by noted rail historian James Bistline of Alexandria, Va. The car was one of the last used as an RPO, operating until the 1970s. Mail was transported by train starting in the 1830s, and employees aboard RPO cars sorted the mail in transit. But the development of commercial air transportation and better roads and trucks, created competitor for railway mail delivery.

Today mail is sorted at various postal service processing and distribution centers and at post offices across the country, but freight railroads still carry more than 145,000 trailer loads of mail every year. As a partner in the Celebrate the Century Express, Amtrak is providing coordination for the train’s routing and scheduling, as well as the engine, exhibit and baggage cars.

For more information on Celebrate the Century, visit the Web site at www.usps.com/ctc.


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