Question regarding term "Despatch"

[Anonymous]

I got a great deal on some Branchline Trains Blue Print cars, and I'm looking at the sprue diagram. There are what appears to be two different style of ladders. One style seems to be standard (I would assume), the other style is for "Despatch Ends". These are refered to as "H" Grabs...

I'm not sure what Despatch means... I looked it up in the dictionary and it's listed only as a derivative of Dispatch...

Would someone take the time to enlighten me on the term Despatch, and what this particular style of grab iron was used for and why the difference, etc.?

Any input would seriously be appreciated, so, THANKS! in advance!

Rey.

[Anonymous]

Okay, so, is this question a bit too dumb for this forum????

Just want to know so I'll know which grab irons to use.

Nigel, this is your que!

BTW, this is my first Branch Line Blue Print Kit.... Jeez Louise!!!! NOW I under stand the term "Sausage Fingers"!!!!

They sure are nice kits though. I was lucky enough to get 8 kits for 8.00 each!

[Anonymous]

Rey,

There ARE NO dumb questions in this forum, with few exceptions, mainly, the one you didn't ask, or the one that was just asked by someone else and you weren't paying attention to the answer. Neither of those exceptions apply here to your question.

I have seen both the word "dispatch" and "despatch". From my understanding of the way they were used, they are not necessarily interchangable. A "dispatch" could mean either a message or an order or a mission. A "despatch", where I've seen it used is mainly in historic novels about the Royal Navy (Horatio Hornblower, Richard Bolitho, and yes, Jack Aubrey), is the actual message. Ships' captains would report by signal flag "have despatches onboard" or "dispatches". So, my somewhat educated guess is that the "despatch" end would be where the orders for the car would be placed in a message holder that would consist of an aluminum frame and a plexiglas or plastic lens to allow the crews to see that a "despatch" was there.

[leighant]

Your original post didn't say what kind of car you were building, boxcar refrigerator car or what. I have seen Santa Fe refrigerator cars lettered SFRD for Santa Fe Refrigerator DESPATCH. I think this is a hint to your "Despatch" ends. I believe this is a sort of company-within-a-company whereby for some transportation regulation or tariff reason, cars or operations are somehow technically different from ordinary common carrier shipments. Perhaps the Despatch company technically provides the service of shipping special commodities such as perishables or livestock (I have also heard the expression "Livestock Despatch") and "contracts" with the railroad to haul "its" cars, although the two entities are actually almost one in the same. Perhaps the services and the conditions of service, guarantees etc are different, such as if a Despatch operator (owned entirely or mostly by a railroad) contracts to deliver a shipment over the entire route even though part of that is over the rails of another railroad. Rather than all the responsibility for the shipment going from one railroad to another when the car is interchanged, the Despatch company may represent the shipper in some way that they would not in a regular interchange. I don't have this nailed down exactly but I think this is the direction to research. You might also check to see whether the term is used in connection with EXPRESS companies.

You might look through some Car Builders Cyclopedias to see if they show different types of cars with Despatch features and regular service cars.

Kenneth L.Anthony, Santa Vaca & Santa Fe Rwy, Corpus Christi, Texas.
Kenneth L. Anthony

[Anonymous]

Well, yes, I was a bit short on the car description.

The car is a 40 ft AAR stell boxcar, DT&I (Duluth, Toledo & Ironton).

After thinking about it during the 6 hours!!! it took me to build this car, I kind of figured that the Despatch ends of the car would be, as facing the car end, the right side of the car end where the wood tack board is. Perhaps these tack boards carried any kind of special orders or bills of lading that had to stay with the car throughout it's shipment.?

The other thing I thought of was that maybe since these irons are used at the car end, rather than the car side, a different style of bracket would be required to reinforce the mounting of the iron, since it was bolted sirectly to the car end panel. Maybe some sort of blocking was required inside the wall to distribute the weight better, and avoid the problem of the brackets pulling out of the car end....

Just guesses on my part. Not particularly important, just a real curiosity that has me captivated as such that I'm trying to rationalize why these paricular irons would be so different than the others.

I ended up using the "H" grabs anyway, because in the end, I though the appearance of them against the car end looked better...

Still curious, though!!!

Rey

[Sperandeo]

Hi Rob,

The term "Despatch end" is the name of a particular type of proprietary pressed-steel car end used primarily by the New York Central and its subsidiaries. The name comes from a NYC car shop (it's a variant spelling of "dispatch" used by some car lines in the early 20th century).Some Branchline kits include parts for use with Despatch ends because this type of end is included with some of the Branchline NYC-prototype car kits. However, for cars of other prototypes, the ladders and grab irons for the Despatch ends are just extra parts that you don't need. Generally the label on the end of the box will tell you if a particular kit has Despatch ends. If a kit is not labeled that way, and especially if it's a road name other than New York Central, you can ignore the extra parts.

Good luck,

Andy

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the info on the ends, Andy.

Since none of my cars actually say Despatch ends, and they're all what I think are smaller shortline roadnames, I'll do a search to see if I can find photos of the ends as a comparison.

Things like this are perhaps, my favorite thing about this hobby... Some new little tidbit of information seems to come up, every day... I'm always learning something new!

Rey.

[Sperandeo]

Hi Rey,

You're welcome. One place you can find a photo of a Despatch end, with a comparison to a Pullman PS-1 end, is the Resselaer Model Railroad Society's Web site at http://railroad.union.rpi.edu. There's a subscription fee, but the site has lots of useful information, and you can join for just a month to try it out.

So long,

Andy