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Altoona Railway Museum Club: Hannegan

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The "Robert E. Hannegan"

This page was last updated on: March 06, 2017

 

Background

The "Robert E. Hannegan" was the only named Railway Post Office (RPO) car in the PRR fleet....an honor usually reserved for sleeping cars, observation cars and parlor cars.

Robert E. Hannegan
 

Robert Emmet Hannegan (June 30, 1903–October 6, 1949) was a St. Louis, Missouri politician who served as Commissioner of Internal Revenue from October of 1943 to January of 1944. He also served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1944 to 1947 and United States Postmaster General from 1945 to 1947. After his political career, in 1947, Hannegan and partner Fred Saigh purchased the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball. But Hannegan, ill with heart disease, sold his share in the team to Saigh a few months before his death.  Hannegan saved the political career of Harry S. Truman in 1940 following the downfall of Truman's sponsor Kansas City boss Tom Pendergast when he supported Truman in a U.S. Senate race against Lloyd C. Stark and Maurice M. Milligan who split the anti-Pendergast vote.  As Democratic chairman, Hannegan was responsible for brokering the deal that put Truman on the Vice President ticket with Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Photographs

This is the Robert E. Hannegan RPO. As of 11/19/06, it was 95% repainted in tuscan red, but not relettered.

-- insert photo

Saturday, Oct 6, 2007, Chapter members re-coated the roof of Railway Post office Car “Robert E. Hannegan”: Frank Givler, Joe Harella, Dick Charlesworth, Scott Cessna, Joe DeFrancesco, Neil Myers and Dave Seidel. As most of us know, this is the only Railway Post Office car on the Pennsy system to be “named” for anyone, in this case, the Postmaster General during the Truman administration. At one time, it was in the Broadway Limited consist. Previous work on this car has included replacement of 95% of the glazing and painting the car in primer. A finish paint job with appropriate PRR lettering is yet to be done, as well as installation of the proper RPO interior fittings which are stored inside the car at this time. In this view, the RPO is coupled to Chapter B-60 baggage car # 9055.

Photographs by David Seidel unless otherwise noted.

 


 

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