Horizontal lines in RPO/REA windows

[gmpullman]

Hello,

Here's an example of a Southern Pacific RPO that shows bars placed on the outside of the window opening:

Southern Pacific Baggage-Mail 5008 - Side Detail by J.L. Nelson, on Flickr

In this particular instance (above) the bars are not there for "security" but to protect the window from being damaged by the mail puouch when picking up mail. The door to the right shows where the bracket "used" to be to hold the mail hook.

I've been in other RPOs and the bars were placed on the inside of the window. From my recollection they weren't particularly "robust" but they were designed to prevent glass breakage from activity inside the RPO.

This is a look at the bars on the "Mark Twain Zephyr":

RPO interior by Phil Jern, on Flickr

From the outside there appears to be ventilation slats on the lower portion of the windows:

RPO Section by Phil Jern, on Flickr

This RPO apartment seems to be better preserved:

05 Zephyr RPO by Eric Bronsky, on Flickr

This view shows the bars and the closed-off ventilation louvers in the lower portions of the windows.

United States Mail Railway Post Office by emd, on Flickr

US Mail Box On The Pioneer Zephyr by emd, on Flickr

If you expand the view of the bars in this example you can see that they are simply, and not very securely, attached to the window frame.

D7G_0661 Inside of the RPO Railroad Post Office car built in 1921, only 2 of the 18 RPO cars still exist, at the Railpark and Train Museum, Bowling Green, KY, on Nov. 16, '12. by aragh_wolf, on Flickr

There's an RPO in the museum at Duluth where you can planly see that the bars (dowels) and the side rails in that particular car are made of wood.

Good Luck, Ed

[doctorwayne]

I've seen photos of those security bars in RPOs, and some are horizontal and others vertical...

I'm currently working on one for a friend, but haven't decided whether to use the vertical or horizontal bars.

Wayne

[tstage]

Thanks, Rich!  Yea, I think that's pretty definitive proof that those rods are for security - particularly the fact that they appear to extend through the frame of the window.

Tom

[richhotrain]

tstage

The reason for the post is that I noticed in one of the article photos what appears to be horizontal bars or louvers across the windows of the latter half of the lead unit (where the RPO is located) and the front half of the 2nd car (where the REA is located).  I presume that these are security bars for protecting the mail (and mail sorters) from criminals and criminal activity?

I'm having a difficult time finding a good photo of the sides of the Zephyrs that show the bars/louvers.  

I've also seen these on heavyweight RPO and REA cars.  It just seems too coincidental that the bars/louvers stop right after the REA section of the 2nd car.

Here is a video that shows those "horizontal lines" more clearly several times in the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SqHfYoKu94

The best view occurs at 1:30 of the video. If you pause the video at this point, those horizontal lines are definitely "bars", probably for security purposes.

Rich

 

[tstage]

Greetings,

First off, I was able to procure the 4th add-on car for my new [non-NYC] Pioneer Zephyr.  It now represents a complete 1935 4-car trainset.

Secondly, I've also been enjoying reading Classic Trains special edition about the Burlington Zephyrs.  It's chock-full of interesting articles and photos that I haven't seen anywhere else.  There's even an article about the original 1934 movie, The Silver Streak.  It's NOT a very good movie but it was fun to see the then newly-built Pioneer Zephyr - even if some of the footage was a bit "hollywood-ized" and staged.

The reason for the post is that I noticed in one of the article photos what appears to be horizontal bars or louvers across the windows of the latter half of the lead unit (where the RPO is located) and the front half of the 2nd car (where the REA is located).  I presume that these are security bars for protecting the mail (and mail sorters) from criminals and criminal activity?

I'm having a difficult time finding a good photo of the sides of the Zephyrs that show the bars/louvers.  Here's a mechanical drawing from Wiki that will at least give you a decent representation of what I'm describing: (Click photo to enlarge)

I've also seen these on heavyweight RPO and REA cars.  It just seems too coincidental that the bars/louvers stop right after the REA section of the 2nd car.

Thanks for the info in advance...

Tom

[Edit: I managed to find an oblique shot of the engineer's side of the primary unit.  You can just see the horizontal bars/louvers in the three small windows behind the mail hook. (Click photo to enlarge)]