Foreign Road RPO's

[Anonymous]

Were RPO's interchanged in the same way as freight cars? For example: Would it be prototypical to see a B&O RPO being hauled into Philadelphia behind a Pennsy passenger train or were some other types of cars used for that?

[ndbprr]

Never say never! Most RPO's however were assigned to trains and routes. AS a rule of thumb I would have to say no as the most prevalent answer. Mail storage or baggage cars are a far different story and traveled the country. PRR B60b baggage car pictures have been found from all parts of the country and nearly every railroad. The railroad had several hundred of them. One exception might be the PRR Lehigh Valley hand off in New Jersey with trains from New York but even then the PRR had a major interest in the Lehigh Valley.

[Anonymous]

RPO's were kept in captive passenger service. only baggage/bem and express cars would be interchanged.
Ch

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the responses! I am currently attempting to kitba***wo Walthers Bailey Savings and Loans into something that looks like a city post office to sit across from a station (kind of like Philly's 30th St). What kind of cars to spot there was the basis of my question. Thanks again!

[ndbprr]

You can use box cars, express cars, baggage cars, mail/express cars and RPO's for the home road.

[Anonymous]

The only cars which were home-road-only would be the RPOs, and any crew-rider cars. (The only common exception I can think of was the jointly-operated "City of San Fransisco", which pooled RPOs from SP, UP and CNW--later MILW--on the Chicago-San Fransisco RPO route).

Otherwise, foreign road cars will be appropriate. And don't forget express reefers, most of which probably will be REA.

The Santa Fe modelers' & historical group published a great article on ATSF's Fast Mail trains, including mail & express car routings and lists and photos of cars typically found in those trains over the years.

[Anonymous]

Another example of a RPO route over several roads: the Interstate Express went between Philadelphia and Binghamton, NY over the Reading(Philadelphia-Bethlehem), Central of New Jersey(Bethlehem-Scranton), and Lackawanna(Scranton-Binghamton). According to an article in Issue 34 of "Flags, Diamonds, and Statues"
(Anthracite Railroads Historical Society), CNJ RPO cars were normally assigned to the route, and Reading and Lackawanna cars used only when the CNJ cars were in the shops. This service ended in 1963. The article also mentions a Jersey City-Williamsport route in the 30s that would have involved CNJ and Reading. I suspect that there are other examples out there. tecrumm

[Anonymous]

Most, if not all joint routes shared RPOs from the home roads in their consists.