A trackside post office for the RPO's!
And the only commissary (Walthers) is a fake front building Where are we to take all our head end cars?
Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions
Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!
Don,
I have never seen a trackside post office. Usually there would be a car or truck that took the mail bags to the local post office or the station agent locked them up in the express room of the depot until morning when the Postmaster would stop by to pick them up.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
In larger cities RPOs went to the postal building to be unloaded and the mail went to the main post office by truck for sorting.REA expresss cars went to the REA building.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
DigitalGriffinnd the only commissary (Walthers) is a fake front building
Is it not nearly the same as this 3-D model?
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3095
Goodness, the list it items not made in HO must be pretty long.
The Pressed Steel 40' box cars used by D&RGW by the bunch, has that been made in plastic yet? Not that I'm aware of. They were used for the famous cookie box box cars.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
I'm always a bit surprised at some of the "missing" non-lineside structures that are ultra-common.
If you take Amtrak off the NEC and out of the urbanized part of the country and get a look at what's sitting next to the tracks, there's a stunning number of gas stations, self-serve car washes (you know, the kind that are just bays with sprayers), and self-storage place (I saw an N scale Atlas kit, I think?). Yet no one really makes a modern canopied gas station and convienence store. Walthers did like 20 years ago and there's the partial background one that Summit makes for a small fortune.
Jim, you are quite right for small towns. However larger cities and end of line terminals typically dropped their mail car off and were picked up the next morning after the post office loaded them up. This is especially true of sealed mail cars bound for large cities like New York, Chicago, and Milwaukee.
Building up and breaking down a long haul passenger train could hold a lot of interest. You just need a place to put the cars as they are prepped for service from the coach yard.
Heh another thing not made to my knowledge is an HPO -- a Highway Post Office. I have photos of these trucks which featured sorting of mail as the truck drove to the next community on its route, very much like an RPO.
Dave Nelson
There are lots of buildings which could be used for a main post office. I used Walthers YMCA building which has since been reissued as a bank building. It is at street level and I kit bashed it over a lower level built with Wathers modulars which is at track level where I drop head end cars.
DigitalGriffinBuilding up and breaking down a long haul passenger train could hold a lot of interest. You just need a place to put the cars as they are prepped for service from the coach yard.
Here's a short list.
1.Pullman cars to the Pullman service tracks..Diner to the clean out track,coaches to clean out.
2.REA cars to the REA building.
3.Mail cars to the post office building for unloading.
4.To the coach yard for train 123 make up..Take train to correct outbound station track for final inspection.
5.To the REA building for outbound cars schedule to depart on #123 place on #123.
6.Pick up outbound mail storeage cars for #123..
And then take the Pullmans and coaches to the coach yard,etc.
You could spend 2 hours making up and breaking down passenger trains-works really with a loop staging yard on one end.
alco_fan DigitalGriffin nd the only commissary (Walthers) is a fake front building Is it not nearly the same as this 3-D model? http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3095
DigitalGriffin nd the only commissary (Walthers) is a fake front building
That could easily pass for a post office building as well as a commissary and REA building as shown...
In a, "One sack on a mail crane," town the Post Office could be a lean-to annex to the general store. In that kind of place, don't EVER ship or receive anything fragile by mail. The sack for the town would simply be kicked out the door while the train rolled through at track speed. [Seen and photographed at Tuxedo, NY (Erie) in 1950 or so.)
Many nice, small masonry buildings could contain almost anything - and could be re-purposed by changing signage. If you re-purpose one into a Post Office, don't forget the flagpole and 'passerby' mail box(es) out front.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
riogrande5761 Goodness, the list it items not made in HO must be pretty long. The Pressed Steel 40' box cars used by D&RGW by the bunch, has that been made in plastic yet? Not that I'm aware of. They were used for the famous cookie box box cars.
teheheheh, N scale needs C636's like we don't need another run of UP and SF F units baaad. uh oh, the UP and SF fans are gonna tar and feather me lol.
SP&S modeler, 1960's give or take a decade or two for some equipment.
http://www.youtube.com/user/SGTDUPREY?feature=guide
Gary DuPrey
N scale model railroader
I'm still waiting for someone to make a kit of a railside classic Maine potato house row. They once lined the rail sidings in central & northern Maine by the thousands. Many still exist & are still in use. I know of no kit of one, in any scale.
Carl
"I could never belong to any club that would have me as a member."
tomikawaTT Many nice, small masonry buildings could contain almost anything - and could be re-purposed by changing signage. If you re-purpose one into a Post Office, don't forget the flagpole and 'passerby' mail box(es) out front. Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I have a flag for the Post Office pictured. Just haven't got around to installing it. I did forget the up front mailbox. Thanks for the heads up.
In many large cities, the main post office was located next to (or at least very near to) the passenger depot(s). In some cases, the post office had it's own spur tracks. My Dad's first job for the US Post Office was going from the main post office in downtown Minneapolis to the Great Northern station next door, and the Milwaukee station about a block or two away, to pick up mail coming in during the night by train. In St.Paul, the main downtown post office (recently closed) was next door to St.Paul Union Depot.
A fairly large post office kit, particularly an art-deco / art-moderne one from the 1930's, would be nice.
Walthers has two different kits for their HO Express/Commissary building, one as a background building and one for a full building. They call the full one an "REA Transfer Building" but it's the same building. I believe they come with decals for both Railway Express and as a Commissary; at least the one I built (the backdrop building) did.
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3173
tomikawaTT In a, "One sack on a mail crane," town the Post Office could be a lean-to annex to the general store. In that kind of place, don't EVER ship or receive anything fragile by mail. The sack for the town would simply be kicked out the door while the train rolled through at track speed. [Seen and photographed at Tuxedo, NY (Erie) in 1950 or so.)
A good film of this practice is in one of the early scenes of the movie In Cold Blood, which was shot on location in Kansas. A Santa Fe train, maybe the Chief, roared passed the depot in Holcomb and two mail bags were tossed out and rolled toward the camera. I'm guessing they filmed an actual mail drop rather than going to the expense of staging it,