Russell, Majors and Waddell was a business partnership, based in Lexington, Missouri, between William Hepburn Russell, Alexander Majors, and William B. Waddell. It operated various transportation and communications services in the American West in the 1850s and early 1860s, including stagecoach services and a private express mail service. The firm is best known for its brief operation of the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company's Pony Express in 1860 and 1861, which incurred heavy losses. In 1862 the partnership's stagecoach operations, which retained value after the collapse of the rest of the company, were bought out by Ben Holladay, and Russell, Majors and Waddell wound up its existence as an independent firm. [1]