On Mon, 27 Nov 2000, Ed DeRouin wrote, in a very interesting post
about mail transportation by rail:
> First, we need to understand that the railroads sold footage to USPS and REA.
> That is one reason RPO cars had standardized lengths of 15, 30 and 60 feet.
> Similarly contracts existed with USPS for storage mail and REA for express. I
> know of zero cases where a foreign RPO was used as a RPO on a CB&Q train. So,
> only CB&Q RPO's were assigned. If fact some trains carried more than one RPO.
> I have seen pictures of three 'working' RPO's, not a car used as storage or a
> deadhead move.
A nitpick: it was the Post Office Department (USPOD) until 1970.
The mail business was reorganized as the Post Service (USPS), an
independent government agency, in that year.
Some roads did have run-though RPOs, as on the Texas Special
(M-K-T/Frisco). The Zephyr-Rocket would be somewhat similar, although
it did have a stop at the point where it changed railroads. Did it
set out and pick up a home lines RPO?
> The cars were assigned based upon the contract. Was a jeep, that's Q term for
> the former troop kitchen cars, adequate? A 60 foot car? As traffic demands
> oscillated, so did car assignments. But daily operations were mostly as
> routine as today's railroading. Every night at 9 the Fast mail departed with a
> very similar consist. The exception were the bypass mail cars and printing
> schedules. Time, Newsweek, The Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal, and
> TV Week all traveled by rail. The cars would be loaded at local team tracks or
> in the express terminals and moved to the depot.
Another nitpick: most large printing plants had (and still
have) their own rail access, often extending right into their
buildings. Wouldn't it have been more likely that the magazine's
cars were loaded right in the printing plant?
Wes Leatherock
wleath@s...
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