Sometimes i like to run a mail train as an excuse for putting together a hodge-podge of express, baggage and mail cars. Two questions: On passenger trains, a member of the crew rode in one of the rear cars. On freight trains, crew members were in the cabooses. On mail trains were there any members of the train crew behind the engine and if so where would they ride? Question 2: how many cars were in the usual consist of a mail train of the 30's or 40's? Thank you.
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Sometimes i like to run a mail train as an excuse for putting together a hodge-podge of express, baggage and mail cars. Two questions: On passenger trains, a member of the crew rode in one of the rear cars. On freight trains, crew members were in the cabooses. On mail trains were there any members of the train crew behind the engine and if so where would they ride?
Mail/express trains had either a "rider coach", or in the case of the PRR, special cabooses assigned to "passenger service & Railway Express agency" (these special assignment cabooses even had trainlined steam heat lines), on the rear of the train for the Conductor, Brakeman, and rear Flagman.
Question 2: how many cars were in the usual consist of a mail train of the 30's or 40's? Thank you.
That is hard to say, as some railroads, like NYC, PRR, AT&SF, operated solid mail & express trains of 20 or more cars, while other railroads simply added the mail and/or express cars on the headend of lesser priority passenger trains.
Did the Southern Pacific have solid mail trains? Matt
Interesting idea for modeling here. I did an image search and came up with a couple of pics. Matt the first one is labeled as a Southern Pacific GS-3 mail express. If you open the picture, in it's own tab, you will see the cars to the left appear to be early 1950 vehicles. I attached a link and you can read the history of this picture.
This would be a fun modeling project. RR Express terminal and Express consist.
View this link for the SP:
http://swrails.com/2012/12/23/...thern-pacific-steam/
A couple more for fun...
Did the Southern Pacific have solid mail trains? Matt
I don't know for sure, but I believe the SP may also have had a "Fast Mail" train like AT&SF. However, I don't know were on the SP system it operated.
N&W ran mail trains. I've seen pictures of a K2a pulling a RPO, several Mail Storage/Baggage cars, and a combine bringing up the rear.
Gilly
The Great Northern ran fast mail trains too. If you want to read about what it was like to be the engineer on one of these runs I would recommend getting a copy of A Time of Trains by David Plowden through inter-library loan and ride with him in the cab of #2505 on a high speed Christmas Eve run in 1955. (Note: the book is basically a train picture book - it's the first 25 pages of text that really make it worthwhile).
I collect RPO cars...brought another K-Line Aluminum one home from York...and I plan
to use them around a large central postal facility, with a lot of switching. Since this
facility will be on a short line with connection to Class Ones, there will be no mail
trains, but a lot of switching of loaded and empty RPO's, and strings of them, from the postal facility to the Class One connections.
I rode ATSF mail train #7 from Bakersfield to Richmond a few days before Christmas in about 1966. Due to the heavy Christmas mail the train was longer than usual, maybe 30 cars or so. There were two or three coaches on the rear. The train was so long that it had to double or triple stop because the platforms were not long enough. It took time work the mail at each station. A 45 minute station stop was possible at the larger towns. As I recall we got into Richmond about five hours late.
SP did have a mail train from Ogden to Oakland, 21-22 Mail. Connected with UP 6-7 at ogden.
SP did have a MOSTLY mail train New Orleans to LA. As time went on, that train was cut back to New Orleans to El Paso.
For a thorough look at mail and express service, look for "Moving Mail and Express by Rail", by Edward M. DeRouin.
ChipR
GN had several modified heavyweight cars that were baggage cars with an added compartment for the rear brakeman/flagman, including coach bench seat, toilet, and a stove in case the steam connections from the head end were not intact. These were usually used on the end of Trains 27/28, the Fast Mail (and later the combined Western Star / Fast Mail), although they did sometimes appear in other trains. These cars survived into the BN era right up to the advent of Amtrak and some received GN Big Sky Blue paint. Many are in museums today.
I sure would like to see these cars offered in O scale. They have recently been offered in HO, here is a picture:
Great information here.....thanks.
Peter
On a Santa Fe baggage cars, the star painted on the side indicated it was equipped with a toilet. I assume this was a prerequisite for being an occupied car.
Great information here.....thanks.
Peter
Shall I bring the mail train with me to the meeting on Friday??
Gilly
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