How was the end of a heavyweight baggage car enclosed since I assume there was no vestibule? I am modeling a mail train with several Athearn baggage cars which do not have doors on the ends. As mail carriers, they would have to have been isolated and often sealed.
RicZ
Athearn chose not to model the end doors for some reason but I've never seen any prototype head end cars without doors. They may not have a vestibule but the door would be there and have a lock. A door would be required not only for security but to keep dirt, dust, rain, snow and other weather elements out and keep heat inside during cold weather. The ends of the cars could be flat but were more commonly angled slightly forward from the sides to the door area which would be flat. I'm sure there were exceptions but that's the general arrangement.
Roger Huber
Deer Creek Locomotive Works
Thanks, any suggestions for a detail part?
Bethlehem Car Works may have what you need. Check their site.
Tom
I guess I'm confused, RickZ (which doesn't take much) Just wondering what Athearn cars you have that don't have end doors.
I have Athearn's site open in another window, and all baggage cars and RPO's have end doors.
Mike.
My You Tube
Blue box H/W baggage cars. I recently bought a half dozen on eBay.
mbinsewi...I have Athearn's site open in another window, and all baggage cars and RPO's have end doors. Mike.
Actually, Mike, the cars have end doorways, but no doors.
I just recently did some work on a modified Athearn baggage car for a friend, and added simple doors made from a piece of .030" sheet styrene. I could have cut a window into it and added a door handle made from wire, but chose not to, as he's not all that interested in such details.
Wayne
I didn't know that ! Thanks. You can tell how many Athearn BB heavy weights I have!
Hi RickZ I guess you have to make the decision what you are going to do. If there is a way of attaching diaphrams that would suffice as you will not see the end doors anyway. Being a PRR Modeller I can use box cars or express reefers as head end car for mail as well as the standard Baggage and RPOs. Most of the PRR cars, namely the B60bs did not have end doorss and some even had a clerk as riders. The clerk or messenger cars had roof vents. I am sure that all roads at some time or another would have used what ever was available in the consists.Make a decision as you are the president.
There is not a chance in hell that the post office would allow storage mail in cars without doors that LOCK.
Or so I believe.
Ed
7j43k There is not a chance in hell that the post office would allow storage mail in cars without doors that LOCK. Or so I believe. Ed
Yep. And just in case the locks weren't enough, the mail clerks in operating RPO's were ALWAYS armed.
ACY 7j43k There is not a chance in hell that the post office would allow storage mail in cars without doors that LOCK. Or so I believe. Ed Yep. And just in case the locks weren't enough, the mail clerks in operating RPO's were ALWAYS armed. Tom
And RPO robberies were exceedingly rare, would you try to rob a room full of armed men?
I would say the deterrent was effective.....
Interestingly, the Athearn RPO/baggage does have end doors, not open doorways.
Sheldon
Keep in mind that the mail clerks were busy sorting mail--not checking up on the storage mail cars.
And the RPO section of a mail baggage was kept separate from the baggage section (baggage not at all being necesarily storage mail). With those locked doors I mentioned earlier.
The USPO was serious about security of the mails.
ACY Bethlehem Car Works may have what you need. Check their site. Tom
If you read early railroad/train robbery fiction, you have probably encountered the term, The blind." It referred to the space between the tender cistern and the doorless end of, usually, a mail storage or RPO car. The bad guys could hide there, out of sight of anyone on board, until time to climb over the bunker and get the train stopped...
The Postales didn't allow ANY acess to mail along the length of the train. If the car was a baggage-mail combine, the bulkhead between the baggage and the RPO would be solid - no door. That, plus the armament inside the RPO, made mail an unrewarding target for outlaws. The fact that very little actual cash or negotiable valuta were included in ordinary mail also contributed.
There would be cash and such in the safe, in registered mail - but getting at it wasn't as easy as the old movie cowboy serials made it look.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with EMU and DMU RPO combines)