on 7/9/01 11:50 AM, Charlie Vlk at charlie@k... wrote:
> I remember seeing NYC short four wheel-trucked baggage cars and converted
> troop pullmans, UP horse baggages, and PRR B70 baggage cars in particular on
> some of the secondary trains. Those cars, along with the Q "jeeps" (troop
> kitchen cars, both converted and unrebuilt) were common cars across the US.
> I think the common thread is that they were all carrying bulk printing for
> nationwide distribution..... magazines and catalogs primarily.
> Anyone else have any other common sightings? I think that these five are at
> the top of the list (and, of course, the various REA owned and leased cars).
> Charlie
Paul, Charlie and Others:
Let's separate mail from express. They are not the same. Mail is anything
moved via the Post Office. Express is moved by, in the post WWII era, the
Railway Express Agency. Sometimes it may be hard to distinguish the two.
A recent article in a model publication also confused LCL with express. That
also was different. LCL is freight, not mail, or express. LCL means less
than carload.
Foreign cars were moved on Q trains for two reasons. They were bypass cars,
that is sealed pouch cars (we may know them as storage cars), or carload
express moving from an offline point to a point on the Q or beyond. The
second reason is that the Q rented the cars due to peak demand and car
shortages.
I need to look more into how express cars were managed. I suspect that
express moving to a second carrier was transferred to another railroad and
reloaded. This activity would occur at an express house and the shipment
moved by truck to the next carrier. I do not recall any talk of express
moving from one carrier to another. As I said, I need to look deeper. If a
lister has the answer, please chime in.
Now, consider which carriers had the mail contracts. All mail movement was a
contracted service whether RPO or sealed cars. Eastern trunk lines would
have carload mail to deliver to the Q for delivery to the UP because the Q
had the Chicago to Council Bluffs contract and UP had the contract to haul
mail to Oakland.
Charlie, I do not know if the shipment of printed matter was shipped via the
Post Office or REA. That would be a negotiated contract. I do know that in
the later 60's, #1, the westbound Denver Zephyr carried an extra head end
car once a week, for magazines printed in Chicago.
The rolling stock used for these moves is a function of era. Charlie is
right on. If we consider the connecting roads, we can probably make a list.
>From the east B&O, NYC, and PRR were the roads that most frequently
delivered bypass mail. It was called by pass mail because it by passed the
Chicago Post Office. For all I know, some may have be carload express. So
any common cars owned by those roads could be seen. Add B&O former troop
cars and baggage cars including the four axle center door C-15. PRR could
send an occasional NH car through. Occasionally, cars from the southeastern
roads could be routed via PRR through Chicago. Add L&N, N&W, ACL, SAL, and
SOU to the list. Keep in mind these movements were much less regular than
NYC, PRR and B&O.
To the west, UP and SP cars would come east and sometimes be sent east of
Chicago, but that was infrequent. Eastward carload mail would be loaded in
cars to be sent home. Car service rules, you know.
Mail to the Twin Cities and Pacific NW was sent north from Chicago via the
CMStP&P. Mail to the southwest from Chicago went via guess who? Yep, the big
guy at Kansas City, Chico. That Santa Fe to the young ones.
Ed DeRouin
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