Writer A.J. Wolff missed the big story when he rode U.P. No. 5 Sept. 22, 1967. The big thing that was about to happen was discontinuance, within days, of Railway Post Office cars, not only on U.P. but on most of the remaining RPO lines around the country. His "20 cars in length" No. 5 -- actually, more like 35 cars on an average night (eastbound No. 6 was shorter) -- was about to shrink to 2, an unneeded baggage car and coach.
Definitely worth a note in the Letters Column of the magazine!
I should have said Wolff also erred when he talked of his passenger coach "bringing up the markers." No. 5 was so off-the-platform long that the coaches (usually two, in my experience) were cut in about 10 cars behind the engine, with another 20 or so cars of storage mail to follow. I have seen No. 5 rock out of Cheyenne with 40 cars. It would be flying by the time the last one cleared!
dakotafred His "20 cars in length" No. 5
The correct quote from Mr. Wolff's article is; "We rode UP's heavy mail and express train 5, which often ran in excess of 20 cars in length..." .
If the train had only a "single rider coach", wasn't that a more practical placement, either at the front or the rear? I have seen mail express trains using that configuration if only using a single coach car.
UP had to respect the heat requirements of the RPOs and the rider cars. Storage mail cars could be operated behind the cars that required heat with steam shut off.
A large part of the storage mail went to or from CB&Q 11 and 12 at Council Bluffs. It may have made sense for switching purposes to carry it behind the rider cars.
I believe that Santa Fe's "Fast Mail" had both a midtrain and rear-end coach in its consist. It's also interesting to note the radical decrease in the number of mail-assigned cars in passenger consists in the mid-1960's as RPO's were discontinued and storage mail was transferred to TOFC service in freight trains.
rcdrye UP had to respect the heat requirements of the RPOs and the rider cars. Storage mail cars could be operated behind the cars that required heat with steam shut off. A large part of the storage mail went to or from CB&Q 11 and 12 at Council Bluffs. It may have made sense for switching purposes to carry it behind the rider cars.
RC, you drove me back to my Official Guides and UP timetables for a memory refresher.
It looks like UP Nos. 5-6 (earlier Nos. 7-8) originated and terminated in Chicago as MILW Nos. 19-20, which accounts for the heft of the trains, especially westbound.
From the Omaha times, it looks as if CB&Q Nos. 11-12, the Nebraska Zephyr, would have connected with, if anything, UP's 27-28, the Omaha-Laramie remnant of the San Francisco Overland. Altho, given 11-12's Zephyr status, I can't see them having much business with plugs like 27-28.
Nos. 27 and 28, five or six cars of mail plus a rider coach, made a connection at Laramie with two streamliners that bypassed Cheyenne at that time, the City of Portland and City of St. Louis.
Nos. 5-6, whose western terminus was L.A. , were a City of Everywhere for mail, exchanging cars with the Portland Rose at Cheyenne and with the S.P's Ogden-Oakland Nos. 21-22 at Ogden.
I was lucky enough to get in on the sunset of U.P.'s mail service, 1966-71, as a mail and baggage handler at Cheyenne.
Don't forget that the Q had its own Chi - Denver fast mail trains, with pickup and setout\, proably each way, at either Omaha or Council Bluffs.
Sometimes I wonder if we ought to bring back the RPO system.
Fed Ex and UPS evolved to speed up mail and package delivery as an alternative to the U.S. Postal Service. But what used to be overnight delivery now often takes several days. And, it isn't cheap anymore either.
Rich
Alton Junction
richhotrain Sometimes I wonder if we ought to bring back the RPO system.
This would probably require dedicated trains. Looking at the woe's Amtrak experiences with host freight railroads I think we'd see another system plagued with problems. Amtrak's attempt at express freight was not that sucessful. Great idea though, be nice to see express trains again.
CB&Q's Chicago-Omaha mail trains connected with UP trains at Council Bluffs during both the C&NW and CMStP&P eras. During the last couple of years they operated train 11 was one of the longest train using Chicago Union Station, carrying everything from flexivans to RPOs, and trailed bythe original articulated Nebraska Zephyr cars (one set now at IRM). It did connect with 27, not 5, as long as it lasted (lack of checking by me). For some reason the schedule for the eastbound mail was not as important , as many of the storage mail cars were returned to Clyde Yard on freight trains to avoid Union Station terminal charges.
Thanks, RC -- great stuff. It's easy to picture 11-12 as one of those streamliners kept on the rails by mail in later years.
On U.P., at Cheyenne, our eastbound mail was probably only half or 2/3, by volume, of westbound. (Couldn't tell if one was "hotter" than the other.) Makes sense, when you figure that westbound gathered its mail from all over the populous East, and had numerous destinations, including set-outs, between Cheyenne and the West Coast. Whereas, eastbound originated mostly in a few big cities on the coast.
A reinstatement of RPO's (and HYPO's) is unlikely due to the increase in mechanization of mail sorting that has occurred since the late 1960's. There are also a lot less passenger trains to which RPO's could be assigned than in the 1960's.
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