Amtrak′s material handling cars (MHCs) rode at the front of passenger trains, carrying mail and express shipments.

When Amtrak took over U.S. passenger operations in 1971, it used cars from the existing fleets until replacing them with newer ones. The Thrall Manufacturing Company built these MHCs in 1986. They usually handled bulk deliveries of magazines and catalogs from northeast printing plants to major cities throughout the U.S. This one often traveled on Amtrak′s "Southwest Chief," passing through Flagstaff on its way between Chicago and Los Angeles.

Due to mechanical problems and a decline in mail and express traffic, Amtrak retired the MHCs by 2004. A museum member purchased this one and brought it to the museum in 2013.

Eighty of these 60-foot cars were built by Thrall using recycled trucks (wheel assemblies) from former Railway Express Agency express reefers (which are refrigerated box cars). They were equipped with 480-volt head-end power (HEP) carry-through cables to power the rest of the cars in the train.

Besides these 1400-series cars, another 70 in the 1500-series were built in 1988 using trucks of a newer design. But because of several incidents with the older trucks, and an instability problem with the newer trucks, the cars were restricted to 60 mph in February 2003 and were soon taken out of service. (Amtrak trains ran at speeds up to 90 mph.) In 2004, Amtrak terminated its mail and express contract with the U.S. Postal Service, and the cars were sold, scrapped, or converted to maintenance of way service.

Amtrak began operations on May 1, 1971. It was formed in October 1970 when Congress passed the Rail Passenger Service Act, creating the National Railroad Passenger Corporation to assume operation of intercity passenger trains.

After its retirement, this MHC was purchased by Phil Sheridan of Los Angeles. It was later purchased by former museum board member Stan Garner who had it moved to a Burlington Northern Santa Fe spur in Arcadia, California. When Stan moved to Arizona in 2007, he left the car there until 2013 when it moved by BNSF to Phoenix, then Union Pacific to the museum′s Tumbleweed Park location. Past museum president Bart Barton purchased it from Stan in 2016.

	2/4/2021 - View showing non-brake end of car.
	2/4/2021 - View showing brake end of car.  Brake handle on side of car.

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