I always see matching boxcars offered along with passenger cars. Is this marketing or did the railroads add these express cars to the consist?
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
Sometimes, yes they did. A quick search could not produce a picture, but I have seen video of this. Usually they were express goods, mail, and milk.
From what I can recall watching trains when I was a kid; PRR passenger trains frequently had REA express cars in the consist but, they were normally tacked onto the rear of the trains rather than the head end. In retrospect, this could either have been to facilitate adding and removing express cars or, perhaps some of the equipment lacked the requisite steam and signaling lines necessary to run up front.
Curt
Boxcars used in express service in passenger trains were modified. If they were regularly used, they would have had steam and signal lines added. In most cases I think they ran at the front of the of the train because the RR wanted to keep first class passengers at the back as far from the dirty loco as possible, at least that is the way it was explained to me. However, in cases where it was difficult to switch them, they would/could be put on the back.
The modifications also included different trucks. Passenger trains ran at faster speeds than freights. In the era of friction bearings, freight bearings would overheat at passenger train speeds. Also the truck structure, bolster particularly I think would not track well at high speeds. The pennsy put trucks on the express X29s that had larger bearings to absorb the heat, different springing, and larger brake shoes, and I think different type bolsters to be more stable at higher speeds. These look much like regular freight trucks at a glance, but if you look closely, you will see some leaf springs visible. I don't know for sure, but express cars probably had passenger brake systems instead of freight. These had finer control than freight systems. IF you look at prototype pictures you will see many express reefers with short versions of passenger trucks also.
Finally, the FRA had different requirements for safety appliances on passenger equipment. Additional grab irons were added, including vertical ones at the ends. Also all I have seen have stirrups at the side door, to asseint in LCL loading and unloading I assume.
Finally something I have seen is brackets on the upper corners for marker lights if they were at the back of a train. All RR rules I have seen, require red lamps displayed to the rear at the end of a train at night, and red flags during the day. I think this morphed into red lights at all times. Since passenger trains did not generally have cabooses with markers, the last car on the train carried them. Passenger cars had brackets for these too, they removable. The markers were probably and FRA rule also.
Now the question is did passenger trains carry them? Yes, but maybe not all trains. I think first class trains such as the Broadway and 20th century and the Chiefs did not in there heyday. Probably did near the end. Probably many secondary trains carried some express and more and more as passenger traffic dwindled.
There were specific mail and express trains. These were passenger trains as far as the RR was concerned and treated as such. Many would have a coach or two. They were scheduled as psg and ran at psg speeds. The consist would be mail storage and express or maybe one or the other. Probably not too many RPOs.
Back in the olden times, before UPS and FEDEX, there was REA. REA contracted with the RRs for fast reliable service and their stuff was generally not bulk - it was new shoes from sears for Aunt Sally, or special farm tools for Uncle Joe. Basically the cars were filled with small packages for multiple customers in many cases. Probably sometimes department stores got whole cars. REA paid a premium for this shipping service and the RRs treated it as such.
Express box cars may have had two Load Limits. One when in freight (train) service and a lesser weight capacity when in passenger service because of the higher speeds through the curves.
For example: CAPY 100,000 PASS CAPY 60,000. on the same line in the dimensions area of each side.
John in Lansing, ILL
