Tight quarters:
RPO_Apartment-2 by Edmund, on Flickr
Note the revolver hanging in the background (I wonder if that is OK in the rule book?).
Letter drop details for mounting in the sides of the cars:
RPO_2016_0021fix (2016_08_17 08_08_12 UTC) by Edmund, on Flickr
You can see the location of the mail drop here, by the letter L at the right of the stenciled word MAIL:
Soo Line - Ladysmith, WI by d.w.davidson, on Flickr
Good Luck, Ed
crossthedog richhotrain There is an eBay auction ending today for an NP Baggage Express car in HO scale. Just add a decal that reads Railway Express Agency. Didn't see that but I saw this:
richhotrain There is an eBay auction ending today for an NP Baggage Express car in HO scale. Just add a decal that reads Railway Express Agency.
Didn't see that but I saw this:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/204195094704?hash=item2f8af9e0b0:g:JVAAAOSwuVljpv2m&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAsJyIYKumLyXWYRZq4J836N105muMC8rZM%2FTqMIxwp5YjOisXfmHdTDc6vmeSXZ%2F6DiC%2BJeEoqYN%2Fy52P79sNFjiWMvkW0JUz0pkopvQSCh5Ae4QCuyRUSZ%2BHx8ndsd0I5uOH%2FFbwifKEKUx%2Fyo%2BfK5mQKU8RQZTVHBn3r0kCJ59f5378bQOMH1Nv0NsOKG%2B2eGV78YtfOckEbvxpo8Kg%2FoqgoCWGu7vV47%2FC408Wu1yz%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR6CNgcusYQ
Rich
Alton Junction
This car is not correctly lettered because it is a full RPO, it would not have handled anything but Post Office mail.
But the prototype picture Ed posted is an RPO/baggage combine. So the baggage portion could/would have been used for REA traffic.
Sheldon
Note the revolver hanging in the background (I wonder if that is OK in the rule book?)
OvermodIf I remember correctly, RPO workers were REQUIRED to be armed when on the car.
Yes. This I understand.
What I'm curious about is, are you the employee, considered armed if your weapon is dangling some feet away. You, the postal employee, are no longer in control of the weapon if it is not on your person at all times.
Hence a possible violation of the rules. Suppose you visit the "hopper" and leave the holster where it is in the photo. Could another person take that weapon and use it for nefarious purposes?
Cheers, Ed
One thing that doesn't seem to have been mentioned here that i have often heard, is how REA vs RPO handled stops.
If an RPO is transferring mail at a station stop, the train won't move until everything is done. The RPO of course wants to be quick and efficient, but ultimately the railroad operates on the post office's schedule. REA was quite the opposite - they had exactly the amount of time the train was stopped, and if they weren't done in time, too bad!
It's worth noting if you're planning on modeling the operations of the two.
When I went to college in the late 1960s, we used REA to handle my footlocker. Not sure how my parents got the box to REA, but an REA truck would deliver it to my dorm or appartment, and pick it up come summer vacation.
allegedlynerdy One thing that doesn't seem to have been mentioned here that i have often heard, is how REA vs RPO handled stops. If an RPO is transferring mail at a station stop, the train won't move until everything is done. The RPO of course wants to be quick and efficient, but ultimately the railroad operates on the post office's schedule. REA was quite the opposite - they had exactly the amount of time the train was stopped, and if they weren't done in time, too bad! It's worth noting if you're planning on modeling the operations of the two.
At big city stations, passenger trains either terminate or have longer layovers for engine/crew changes, supplies, fueling, equipment changes, etc. REA and Post Office cars were often set out at their specific sidings.
In any case REA personnel would know aproximately what their traffic load was and would generally be prepared to unload and load in the alotted time.
But no the RPO service did not control the train schedule, the Post Office adjusted to the railroads schedule. The railroad was under contract to provide the service as agreed apon, daily, weekly, as required for that route, but the Post Office did not control timing down to the minute - that would have been impossible and impractical.
Did it work perfectly for every letter and every parcel? Of course not. Don't you get updates today that USPS, FedEx, UPS or Amazon has a delay in delivering your package?
But with the continious network of trains in both directions and junction points with other routes, detours and delays were easy to correct.
One last thought - While fast and reliable service from this carriers was important, people had different expectations - not like the spoiled, "follow my tracking updates" people of today.
ATLANTIC CENTRAL But no the RPO service did not control the train schedule, the Post Office adjusted to the railroads schedule. The railroad was under contract to provide the service as agreed apon, daily, weekly, as required for that route, but the Post Office did not control timing down to the minute - that would have been impossible and impractical.
What I've heard is that, generally speaking at least on the east coast, the RPO had to be given enough time at a stop to do it's job. I'm not sure if I've just heard if from a lot of people quoting each other, but I've heard it from numerous trustworthy sources going back to magazine articles from the 70s. Was it often that a train was delayed for an RPO? Probably not, it was in everyone's best interest to stay on schedule, but an RPO had far more power to do so than REA or anyone else.
Perhaps this might be a regional thing, or exaggerated anecdotes that have been passed down, or maybe one person made it up in the 70s and it's a common misconception, but I've not seen any evidence against it so I'll stick to it for now.
allegedlynerdy ATLANTIC CENTRAL But no the RPO service did not control the train schedule, the Post Office adjusted to the railroads schedule. The railroad was under contract to provide the service as agreed apon, daily, weekly, as required for that route, but the Post Office did not control timing down to the minute - that would have been impossible and impractical. What I've heard is that, generally speaking at least on the east coast, the RPO had to be given enough time at a stop to do it's job. I'm not sure if I've just heard if from a lot of people quoting each other, but I've heard it from numerous trustworthy sources going back to magazine articles from the 70s. Was it often that a train was delayed for an RPO? Probably not, it was in everyone's best interest to stay on schedule, but an RPO had far more power to do so than REA or anyone else. Perhaps this might be a regional thing, or exaggerated anecdotes that have been passed down, or maybe one person made it up in the 70s and it's a common misconception, but I've not seen any evidence against it so I'll stick to it for now.
Railroads have always liked to stay on schedule, and prefered to use departure times as their control. However most schedules have always had reasonable allowances and engineers are known to "makeup" the time when possible.
Station stops have always allowed reasonable time for expected loading/unloading of passengers, mail and express.
I think we are talking about something that was pretty much a non issue.
allegedlynerdyIf an RPO is transferring mail at a station stop, the train won't move until everything is done.
I have never heard of a train being held 'on a post office's schedule' as a general rule, and I'll require explicit proof before giving that idea any credence at all The railroad might hold a train if holiday loading required a few more seconds, but that would be a normal courtesy, not some legislated requirement.
And I would expect similar consideration for high REA volume at a particular stop, although there would be likely be more 'handling' and consequently more dwell time involved for package express than for package mail. Any stop with anticipated high M&E volume would likely have the necessary number of baggage wagons ready by the car doors, with the packages staged ready near the doors, so actual "intermodal" transfer would occupy the least practical time.
ATLANTIC CENTRAL Station stops have always allowed reasonable time for expected loading/unloading of passengers, mail and express. I think we are talking about something that was pretty much a non issue. Sheldon
From what I gather regarding "working" the RPO on busier routes was that the car typically had a baggage mail storage car on either side of the RPO and unsorted mail was transfered into the RPO as needed with sorted bundles moving into the other baggage mail car.
This helped reduce any dwell time at intermediate stations. At any location where there might be transfers of larger volumes of mail the cars could simply be set-out or picked up as needed.
I do recall waiting in Hoboken NJ on the Erie-Lackawanna's Lake Cities while newspapers were being loaded into express cars on the head-end. In the '60s newspapers and periodical were still a high priority commodity. Missing the train and getting the newspapers to a distant city a day late was not an option.
By this time the RPO had already been removed from all E-L passenger trains.
Sometimes, Railway Express would hire temporary help during peak shipping periods:
Santa Express by Edmund, on Flickr
Regards, Ed
gmpullman Overmod If I remember correctly, RPO workers were REQUIRED to be armed when on the car. Yes. This I understand. What I'm curious about is, are you the employee, considered armed if your weapon is dangling some feet away. You, the postal employee, are no longer in control of the weapon if it is not on your person at all times. Hence a possible violation of the rules. Suppose you visit the "hopper" and leave the holster where it is in the photo. Could another person take that weapon and use it for nefarious purposes? Cheers, Ed
Overmod If I remember correctly, RPO workers were REQUIRED to be armed when on the car.
No one - not railroad employees, not anyone - was allowed inside the RPO except US Postal employees. The cars generally had limited access, sometimes without end doors or with end doors that locked, so people couldn't just wander through the car if it was in a train with regular passenger cars. Combine RPOs often only had a small crawlspace to connect the RPO section to the Baggage part. BTW that's one reason they were usually at the very head of the train, to help keep them separate and secure.