I read somewhere the Milwaukee Road used old Baggage and old Box Cars to haul Company records around the system.......weren't these also called "storage cars"? I seem to remember reading somewhere that 40 foot boxcars on the PCE were used to transport company records from Seattle to Chicago. This was back in the carbon page and typewriter days and I think the records were being moved to archive.
Yes, mail storage cars were a "thing" for a long time. These were sealed boxcars or express cars that would be loaded in one city and completely emptied at another. Basically, a car load service for mail. Amtrak was doing this back in the 1990's, too, before Gunn cut most of that out because it wasn't worth the scheduling problems.In the New Haven days, they had 150 ex-troop sleepers. Half of them were baggage cars (w/ lights, batteries & a generator) while the others were mail storage cars (no lights, etc.). They looked alike except for the underframe details.
You also used to have Messenger Cars. These were baggage cars that had a armed rider who would lock himself inside (meaning they had to have lights, water, and a toilet). One can imagine what kind of freight he was guarding (probably cash transfers between banks and the like). Messenger Cars always had a 5-pointed star painted in the lower center of the car sides. All "starred" cars were considered occupied at all times even if they weren't, which meant every time an engineer coupled up, he'd have to stop 10' away, then make a soft hitch.
OvermodNorm48327 ISTR that this requirement substantially predates WWII, and I think WWI. It goes back to the era of train robberies, and I think there is at least one thread on a Kalmbach forum, perhaps Classic Trains, that even has the specific legislation authorizing attendants to 'carry'.
ISTR that this requirement substantially predates WWII, and I think WWI. It goes back to the era of train robberies, and I think there is at least one thread on a Kalmbach forum, perhaps Classic Trains, that even has the specific legislation authorizing attendants to 'carry'.
Good Grief Overmod. I ain't that old. I was young and naive back then.
Norm
BaltACD tree68 Norm48327 ...but I do remember he was required to carry a handgun. It might have been in the cited article, or another RR anecdote in which someone related that a relative had worked in RPOs, and while they were required to carry a pistol, the revolver that was issued had clearly seen better days, nearly falling apart in his hands... I can recall, if not specifically where, a number of captions of images of passenger trains in which the term "storage cars," or something very similar, was included, referring to head end cars.
tree68 Norm48327 ...but I do remember he was required to carry a handgun. It might have been in the cited article, or another RR anecdote in which someone related that a relative had worked in RPOs, and while they were required to carry a pistol, the revolver that was issued had clearly seen better days, nearly falling apart in his hands... I can recall, if not specifically where, a number of captions of images of passenger trains in which the term "storage cars," or something very similar, was included, referring to head end cars.
Norm48327 ...but I do remember he was required to carry a handgun.
It might have been in the cited article, or another RR anecdote in which someone related that a relative had worked in RPOs, and while they were required to carry a pistol, the revolver that was issued had clearly seen better days, nearly falling apart in his hands...
I can recall, if not specifically where, a number of captions of images of passenger trains in which the term "storage cars," or something very similar, was included, referring to head end cars.
Watch this with the closed captions. Computer speech recognition still has a ways to go.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Norm48327...but I do remember he was required to carry a handgun.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Norm48327 I do remember he was required to carry a handgun. The latter was likely a carryover from WWII.
In the forties and fifties one of my uncles worked on an RPO car sorting mail along the way. As I recall, he mentioned how things were done sorting mail according to destination; probably akin to a regional sorting center today. I don't ever recall him mentioning a 'storage car', but I do remember he was required to carry a handgun. The latter was likely a carryover from WWII.
As 'storage cars' relate to the freight world I think it may have the same meaning as 'cars in storage'.
That is my best WAG.
I have had the imoression that "storage mail" meant that the car was not to be worked between the car's origin and the car's destination which was indicaed on the tag. Of course, it has been a few years since I last saw what I knew to be a storage mail car.
Johnny
CSSHEGEWISCHThe last RPO wasn't discontinued until May 1976. Storage mail continued to be moved on freight trains for quite a while after that.
Unless I remember wrong, PC and then Conrail continued to run mail trains between Philadelphia (and probably 'points south') for years after the last RPO came off that route (wasn't it 1977?). These would run behind GG1s and I remember them as fast as any other passenger traffic. We could probably decide if the correct semantic definition of the cars used in that service would be 'storage cars' (mail certainly was unlikely to dwell in them very long!) but I believe a significant volume of both mail and package traffic ran in bulk in those trains, some of which I remember having more cars than would comfortably fit a Penn Station passenger platform...
FedEx and UPS do have trailers or containers on flatcars, I've been told. Does any US or Canadian mail move this way currently?
The great RPO/HYPO discontinuances really took hold in 1968. The last RPO wasn't discontinued until May 1976. Storage mail continued to be moved on freight trains for quite a while after that.
BaltACD Since the Post Office bowed out of using railroads in the distribution of mail in 1968 - 50 years ago, the mention of storage mail in todays railroading is archaic.
Since the Post Office bowed out of using railroads in the distribution of mail in 1968 - 50 years ago, the mention of storage mail in todays railroading is archaic.
In my observations of passenger trains (Oh, those were the days!) I saw many cars that were no different, externally, from the cars that were clearly baggage cars, and in some way ware labeled as mail storage cars--and locked with Post Office locks.
These cars were loaded in large cities, and the contents were destined for various cities along the trains' ways, and were cut out at their various destinations so they could be worked without delaying the trains that had brought them in. I noticed them particularly in Charlotte and Bristol
Note that on some railroads at certain times, cars used for mail that were not Railway Postage Cars were called mail storage cars. There may have been differences between them and regular baggage cars, but I don't know of any. It may have been more of a consist designation than a car type, with a typical consist being say 2 mail storage, one RPO, combine, X number of coaches, diner, X number of sleepers and lounge-obs.
I don't think that that is the answer you are looing for; it has been answered already. But keeping this other meaning in mind might be useful.
Thanks, Overmod.
Still in training.
Likely, in context, cars (of various types) that the short line will 'store' for the owners until the cars are wanted for service again.
See the discussion of where grain cars go during 'the rest of the year'. Other historically-popular types were long TTX trailer flats and older types of stack cars.
An article in Trains mentioned that part of a certain short line's freight traffic was pulpwood and "storage cars." What are storage cars?
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