We visited this several days ago. While we are RR fans not all that technical about it. Docent suggested we could go through in about 90 minutes. We took 4 hours. The volunteers were all knowledgible and fun to talk with. Most single impressive thing was comparing a side by side early locomotive and an articulated 4-6-6-4 (IIRC), the later is simply huge. Most of the rest is impressive as well, as is the building. And the Sacramento River, and RR swing bridge (a medium tour boat required a swing).
Do they still have the Pullman sleeping car with the motion inducer to give the feel of the rails?
The cab-forward is a 2-8-8-4 arrangement. The machine was not a compound arrangement. And, yes, it is huge.
It's been a bit over five years since my last visit, I guess time for another trip to Sacramento.
Since it's a cab forward, it's actually a 4-8-8-2.
(motion inducer) They do. And several other specialty cars, including a mail car
ROBIN LUETHE (motion inducer) They do. And several other specialty cars, including a mail car
mudchicken +! When my wife and I were there in 2015, one of the people who had worked for RPS was the docent on the mailcar. I found it fascinating to talk with him about his work of forty years or more. He also was one of the first people of colour to work in this service. That discussion too was fascinating and a little sobering. He was a real gentleman. The museum is a remarkable place, for sure. Charlie Chilliwack, BC ROBIN LUETHE (motion inducer) They do. And several other specialty cars, including a mail car While they get outside funding from the state and other outside sources, they struggle to stay open. The library and archives struggles to function at all. Go visit sooner than later.
+!
When my wife and I were there in 2015, one of the people who had worked for RPS was the docent on the mailcar. I found it fascinating to talk with him about his work of forty years or more. He also was one of the first people of colour to work in this service. That discussion too was fascinating and a little sobering. He was a real gentleman.
The museum is a remarkable place, for sure.
Charlie
Chilliwack, BC
While they get outside funding from the state and other outside sources, they struggle to stay open. The library and archives struggles to function at all. Go visit sooner than later.
As big as the Cab Forward is, the Big Boy is even bigger, of course. But the Cab Forward is a great locomotive in its own right. At 295 of them, there were more of them built than any other class of articulated, if my memory is serving me correctly. Baldwin got them right and SP loved them.
I agree that a Cab Forward is an impressive machine. There are, indeed, many interesting exhibits in that museum--and my wife really liked the gently rocking Pullman
Johnny
This last Sunday, we went to the Illinois Railway Museum and watched a demonstration of an RPO exchanging mail at about 30 mph. E-9 BN-3 led two heavyweight cars,an RPO / Express car and a coach /baggage car and the clerk kicked out a mail pouch and grabbed a mail pouch from the holder. That had been a regular event until the middle sixties. When the postal service killed mail by rail, it doomed most passenger trains. When I was dating the girl that I married, her home was 100 miles North of Cincinnati. I would drive to the Winton Place station (first stop 10 minutes out of CUT) and hand a letter to the RPO clerk on the B&O Detroit bound overnight train and she would have it the next day (her father was a postmaster) in a smaal town East of Sidney OH. That was in1959.
Also ,Winton Place had seven* overnight trains in the morning that discharged mail for all the northern Cincinnati suburbs and there were over ten trucks lined up in a row and as the trains arrived, the clerks would eject the appropriate sack.Saved the time taking it down to CUT and back. That was probably a carry over from when there was multiple deliveries in a day.
* PRR Chicago
PRR Pittsburgh
NYC Detroit
NYC Cleveland
B&O Detroit
B&O Washington DC
N&W Portsmouth,
It is, indeed, interesting to watch the exchange of mailbags when a train does not stop. When I lived in Wesson, Mississippi in the early sixties, I could watch the exchange twice a day as #3 and #4 came through town. #8 stopped about midnight, and picked northbound mail up (it may have also picked southbound mail up and left it in Jackson for #25 to deliver), and #25 stopped about 3:30 in the morning to leave mail. Some people in town complained about the blowing horn early in the morning, for there were two crossings close to the station--I never heard it, even though I lived across the street from the track and one of the crossings.
Electroliner 1935 ROBIN LUETHE (motion inducer) They do. And several other specialty cars, including a mail car This last Sunday, we went to the Illinois Railway Museum and watched a demonstration of an RPO exchanging mail at about 30 mph. E-9 BN-3 led two heavyweight cars,an RPO / Express car and a coach /baggage car and the clerk kicked out a mail pouch and grabbed a mail pouch from the holder. That had been a regular event until the middle sixties. When the postal service killed mail by rail, it doomed most passenger trains. When I was dating the girl that I married, her home was 100 miles North of Cincinnati. I would drive to the Winton Place station (first stop 10 minutes out of CUT) and hand a letter to the RPO clerk on the B&O Detroit bound overnight train and she would have it the next day (her father was a postmaster) in a smaal town East of Sidney OH. That was in1959. Also ,Winton Place had seven* overnight trains in the morning that discharged mail for all the northern Cincinnati suburbs and there were over ten trucks lined up in a row and as the trains arrived, the clerks would eject the appropriate sack.Saved the time taking it down to CUT and back. That was probably a carry over from when there was multiple deliveries in a day. * PRR Chicago PRR Pittsburgh NYC Detroit NYC Cleveland B&O Detroit B&O Washington DC N&W Portsmouth
N&W Portsmouth
Worked seveal stations where mail was picked up an delivered on the fly. PO employee would arrive several minutes prior to the scheduled arrival of the train and hang the outgoing mail on the Mail Crane and then await the arrival of the train. The RPO clerk who operated the pick up hook on the RPO would kick the incoming mail pouch off the RPO aiming for the part of the station that was defined by the Operators bay window. The stations where I worked and on the fly mail was performed had 'track speed' of 79 MPH - the speed at which the exchanges happened.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Were there incidences of passengers or other civilians on the platform when the mail sacks were tossed off the moving train?
MidlandMikeWere there incidences of passengers or other civilians on the platform when the mail sacks were tossed off the moving train?
Stations I was working where mail was handled on the fly were not passenger stops. Very little to no foot traffic and no passenger platform.
So 7 overnight trains everyday in 1959 as posted by Electroliner
... so If this existed today the freight lines would howl about congestion coming out of their ears. Also I believe the freight trains were more numerous than today and more local switching and such. My, how on earth did they do it?... and all this without all the fancy schmancy digital world. I also suspect it was even more so during the war years into the early fifties.
They did "howl". How many "train off" petitions did railroads have in the late 50s for their money losing passenger operations?
Miningman So 7 overnight trains everyday in 1959 as posted by Electroliner Electroliner 1935 ROBIN LUETHE (motion inducer) They do. And several other specialty cars, including a mail car This last Sunday, we went to the Illinois Railway Museum and watched a demonstration of an RPO exchanging mail at about 30 mph. E-9 BN-3 led two heavyweight cars,an RPO / Express car and a coach /baggage car and the clerk kicked out a mail pouch and grabbed a mail pouch from the holder. That had been a regular event until the middle sixties. When the postal service killed mail by rail, it doomed most passenger trains. When I was dating the girl that I married, her home was 100 miles North of Cincinnati. I would drive to the Winton Place station (first stop 10 minutes out of CUT) and hand a letter to the RPO clerk on the B&O Detroit bound overnight train and she would have it the next day (her father was a postmaster) in a smaal town East of Sidney OH. That was in1959. Also ,Winton Place had seven* overnight trains in the morning that discharged mail for all the northern Cincinnati suburbs and there were over ten trucks lined up in a row and as the trains arrived, the clerks would eject the appropriate sack.Saved the time taking it down to CUT and back. That was probably a carry over from when there was multiple deliveries in a day. * PRR Chicago PRR Pittsburgh NYC Detroit NYC Cleveland B&O Detroit B&O Washington DC N&W Portsmouth ... so If this existed today the freight lines would howl about congestion coming out of their ears. Also I believe the freight trains were more numerous than today and more local switching and such. My, how on earth did they do it?... and all this without all the fancy schmancy digital world. I also suspect it was even more so during the war years into the early fifties.
For the entire day, this double track line had about 26 passenger trains and I would estimate about 20 freight trains. Everything heading North and East of Cincinnati. Freight transfers between C&O, L&N and Southern to NYC. Through B&O freight trains to/from the East and the North. It was a great place to watch activity. And one other thing was that the B&O trains to Detroit had to make a back up move just East of Winton Place to transfer from the B&O east/west line to the CH&D line. There was NA tower that controled the junction of the NYC and the B&O plus the connection to the CH&D. Shell of the forlorn tower still exists and can be seen from I-75 but former B&O toward the east is now regional I&O single track. Fo. rmer NYC is now NS toward Dayton. CSX installed a double track connection between the CH&D and the B&O in the seventies and raised the tracks where Winton Place station had been. Clifton Ave became an underpass having previously been a manned grade crossing. Depot was relocated to Sharon Woods Park.
I thoroughly enjoyed my visit there in 2003:
Enjoy, Ed
That's a nice bit of film-making Mr. Pullman, my compliments!
And you didn't forget the old show-biz rule...
"Always leave them wanting more!"
Thanks for posting!
Electroliner 1935 Do they still have the Pullman sleeping car with the motion inducer to give the feel of the rails?
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[It has been 12 months since I have seen the Pullman car with the motion and sounds, but I have seen it every year for 20 years. CSRM is a fringe benefit when we live 800 miles away and have family in the area.]
...and here's what it was like way back when for that first day on the job as a mail clerk on one of the mail cars...
mersenne6 et al.
Which reminds me of the interview I had with a retired local US Postmaster who ran the Davisburg MI post office. Lucille Krause was nearly 100 years old at the time and we were talking about railroad mail delivery on the Grand Trunk Western Line into Detroit, MI. As Postmaster it was her daily duty to see that the evening mail was taken regularly from the US Post Office, and the outbound bag attached to the mail crane near the Davisburg passenger station. The mail would then be retrieved "on the fly" sorted and delivered to the Royal Oak MI branch office about 30 miles distant.
At the end of one winter day she said, "We hung the bag as usual and left it to be retrieved. The traveling RPO mail car hook pulled it and lost it! Which was particularly unfortunate because it was late winter in April and the mail went all over the tracks and some stuck to the undercarrage of the cars. Much of it was never recovered.
It was particularly worrysome for many because this happened during tax season and the US Income Tax returns were in the post. It took several weeks before all of what could be found of the mail was gathered and processed or returned damaged if at all to the sender. Folks really did not know if their tax returns went on thru or never made it and I never did hear how the IRS responded to that particular situation. It was just one of the everyday hazzards of US Post Office mail delivery at the time."
Yah! I understand that - I really do! The laughter of folks who have become numb to the responsibility they ignorantly bear to the public.
She also added "Typically the system of 'on the fly' mail retreval worked flawlessly most of the time; except in this one unfortunate incident; which was the only one in my career."
Stories from the days of steam and the US railroad RPO post office system.
-----------------
Dr. D
We were at CSRM this weekend and enjoyed it. It does not have quite the collection on display as an outdoor museum like IRM but the inside exhibits are great. It is more of a history type museum that explains what the railroads meant to the area rather than a display of artifacts like locomotives and train sets.
I was a little disappointed in that there were no large deisel locomotives on display. The excursion train was pulled by an EMD switcher on Saturday and a saddle tank steam engine Sunday.
All in all it is a great place to visit if you are in the area but I would not have driven 12 hours to do so if I wasn't already planning on being in the area. There are other attractions right in Old Sacramento to make the family happy after they put up with you going to the railroad museum.
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