ATLANTIC CENTRALLikwise name trains seldom had RPO's or had limited RPO service, while "intermediate" class trains that stopped at most stations often had lots RPO and REA head end equipment.
Would it be common to see an RPO and an REA car in the same train? Or, did RRs tend to keep them in separate trains?
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
GNREA REEFERS...
TF
Seeing all those stuffed bags in the photo makes me think that some citizens are going to be pre-tty upset that they still haven't received their mail yet...
Here is a neat photo of the RPO section of the middle car on the original Pioneer Zephyr on display at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pioneer_Zephyr,_RPO_section.jpg
Rich
Alton Junction
Interesting info here. Have a few pics of a Railway Post Office car taken at the Duluth Depot Museum in Minnesota.
Good photos can be hard to come by as the cars are generally packed in like sardines.
Northern Pacific
Bars in the windows with a door like Fort Knox. They often carried large sums of money and transported bullion at times.
Wonder how many tons of mail had been sorted before that car retired.
Dave mentioned the RPO on display at Galesburg. The B&O Museum in Baltimore also has a very comprehensive RPO display and another early RPO is preserved at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania is Strasburg.
Sheldon
Ed's letter recovered from the Century wreck invites more discussion.
Note the postmark -- Indianapolis, on what can only be the 20th, at 10pm.
The letter could not have been loaded directly on the Century at Indianapolis, of course, which leads to the question of how mail was transferred to the train west of Mentor.
The wreck was in the evening of the 21st, but the train immediately preceding, by 50 minutes or less, was #10 from Chicago to Boston. Note that the accident envelope wound up in Boston, which seems a peculiar place for NYC to transport damaged mail (I presume it is international mail from the German-language sticker where the stamp would be). If that was in fact the routing this letter was intended to take, I presume there was no mail-handling facility on #10.
Some, maybe most, RPO cars even had a slot in the side of the car so letters could be "mailed" by passengers on station platforms.
And because the mail was being sorted en route, remarkably fast delivery to the customer could occur. I heard a presentation by some Burlington Route veterans who had worked on RPO cars, and because there was twice-a-day US mail delivery in many cities (something I have only the vaguest and possibly invented memories of), they were saying that a letter mailed on the platform in Chicago early in the morning of a mail train due to depart early morning, it might be delivered in that same afternoon's mail delivery in surprisingly distant cities such as Omaha.
The other thing they mentioned is that the RPO guys got to know their route so well that they knew the little height differences in the mail pouch holders so they could raise or lower the catcher arm perfectly without even having to know what station it was.
There is a CB&Q RPO car on display at the depot/museum in Galesburg IL and it is well worth a tour when it is open for inspection, such as during Railroad Days in June
Dave Nelson
The NYC will give you an inside peek.
NYC_RPO-ad by Edmund, on Flickr
Interesting to note the Post Office called the portion of the car devoted to their use as an "Apartment".
Mail carried and sorted en route was given an R.P.O. cancellation showing the train number and route.
Empire State Express_12-07-1941 by Edmund, on Flickr
I like to collect special "covers" with RPO cancellations.
RPO_2016_0016_fix (2016_08_17 08_08_12 UTC) by Edmund, on Flickr
RPO_Apartment by Edmund, on Flickr
Throughout the 1950s and '60s many RPOs were relegated to M-of-W service as they became surplus, sometimes ending not so well:
RPO_PRR_Cresson (2016_09_04 19_23_36 UTC) by Edmund, on Flickr
10078 by Edmund, on Flickr
Regards, Ed
tstage Sheldon, I really appreciate the lengthy & thorough explanation about the two operations. I think I'll read it through a few more times so that I can get a better grasp of what they did. And thanks, Rich and Bear, for your input, as well. Tom
Sheldon,
I really appreciate the lengthy & thorough explanation about the two operations. I think I'll read it through a few more times so that I can get a better grasp of what they did. And thanks, Rich and Bear, for your input, as well.
You are most welcome. After you soak up that info, I can fill in more details if you have questions.
I will add this right now. While from the exterior, particularly with lightweight/streamlined RPO equipment, they can all look very different, the interior layout of the mail sorting section was always to one of the approved Post Office plans.
Like Rich said, two completely different operations that had nothing to do with each other.
A few more details:
There were a series of U.S. Post Office approved floor plans and layouts for both full RPO cars and RPO sections in combination cars in a number of different sizes. All were similar in layout with a number of standardized fixtures.
Baggage cars were often assigned to RPO service as mail storage cars connected to the working RPO car or cars. RPO baggage combines gave the railroad flexibility to use the baggage section for either railroad use or as mail storage for the RPO.
RPO workers were employed by the Post Office and it was a higher paying prestigious assignment. Once assigned to a specific route, they were seldom re-assigned because it was necessary for them to learn the order of the stops on the route, and know the layout of the "their" RPO car. It also required carring a side arm - all RPO employees were armed while on duty.
Mail was picked up and droped off at the various stops along the way, and on the fly using the "mail hook" and by simply tossing the bag of mail onto the platform to a waiting post office employee.
Only Post Office employees were allowed in the RPO cars or mail stoarage cars while in service with mail onboard. This is one reason why they were at the front of the train, to not limit movement of passenger crew thru the rest of the train. Additonally the cars were generally switched out quickly in big cities and parked on special tracks, offen at large Post Offices located near major stations.
REA was just like UPS, but using the trains as their "long distance trucking". Local delivery trucks picked up and delivered packages, or you could pickup/drop off at the train station. Under federal law, they did not carry letters, just parcels.
REA also had deticated terminals at many large stations. REA has a complex history of evolution, but in the end was owned by a consortium of 86 railroads and was federally regulated carrier just like the trucking and railroad industry of that time.
While the post office also carried parcels, that service was obviously limited to the stations where the train actually stopped........
The fees paid by the Post Office for the equipment and the operation paid a major portion of the operating costs of most passenger trains. And on the busiest routes between major cities, special mail trains that consisted of mostly multiple RPO's and mail storage cars would be run with just a coach or two for railroad crew and a few paying passengers.
Likwise name trains seldom had RPO's or had limited RPO service, while "intermediate" class trains that stopped at most stations often had lots RPO and REA head end equipment.
The RPO service basically funded US passenger trains from its introduction in the 1860's until the 1960's.
tstage Did the REA handle packages and the RPO letters?
Did the REA handle packages and the RPO letters?
The Railway Express Agency (REA) was an independently owned and operated company with its own shareholders and Board of Directors. It essentially was the predecessor in function to today's UPS and FedEx.
The Railroad Post Office (RPO) was not government owned but the U.S. government contracted with the railroads to operate RPO cars as moving post offices. The cars were sometimes "combines" with a portion of the car devoted to baggage or even passenger seating. The Railway Mail Service was an agency of the United States Post Office Department until its dissolution in 1971 that oversaw the RPO operations.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Is there a distinct difference between an RPO car and an REA car? Did the REA handle packages and the RPO letters?
Thanks,