Al, I can't speak to 1938-9 right now, but when I prepared for my clinic and
article [ will it ever appear? ] on the C&NW/UP/SP Fast Mail in 1953 I
discovered that a rather significant number of foreign cars...baggage,
express, and frt...operated on this train. Cars might be carrying anything
from dead bodies to newspapers. One interesting aspect is that it was common
for a car to travel from one large eastern city...like NYC...to San
Francisco without opening the car [ hopefully one with newspapers ].

I'll take a look and see what cars from southern locations might be
traveling on the Overland Route.

Mike Brock