I find the whole thing about using sealing wax and a station stamp absolutely
fascinating. I guess I always associated something like that with perfumed
letters dispatched by smitten lovers in the Victorian era, and yet here it was,
common practice on a class one railroad until the mid-70's!
On the other hand, that WAS 40+ years ago (yikes), and as I recall, at the time
railroads were not exactly considered to be at the forefront of modern
technology. My, how times have changed.
Larry
--- In CBQ@yahoogroups.com, "richardforst2004" <reforst@...> wrote:
>
> Remember that early afternoon eastbound Dinkie with the combine power car was
> also the "Remittance Train". I worked suburban stations as a relief Agent in
> the late 1960's and early 1970's in the summers while attending college and I
> had to meet the train to send the daily station ticket sales money to the
> GOB, besides baggage. Each summer I worked mainly La Grange, Hinsdale and
> Downers Grove stations, beside various other locations and House 9 relief
> jobs, and sometimes during the school year. Those first of the month ticket
> sales (cash and checks) for the Monthly Commuter Pass money going on the
> train was substantial. We also had to seal the remittance envelope with wax
> and the station seal as part of the procedure. As I understand, before Metra
> took over the commuter operation the BN hired Brinks run a truck to each
> depot to pick up the daily money. Richard Forst, Tualatin, OR
>
> --- In CBQ@yahoogroups.com, "Larry" <lsallee@> wrote:
> >
> > I just processed and added this
> > <https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/bYvnkpm0LLUDtSEWHIoKVtMTjNZETYmyP\
> > Jy0liipFm0?feat=directlink> image to my gallery, and looking at the
> > employees visible in the photo, I got to wondering about a couple of
> > things. Might be pretty dumb questions here for somebody who's been
> > around railroads all his life, but I realized I just didn't know.
> >
> > I notice one visible trainman for each car. I assume this would be a
> > conductor and 2 brakemen. Would there always be the same number of
> > trainmen on every commuter train, regardless of size (even with much
> > larger trains during rush hour)? Was there a separate class of employee
> > that would have been ticket collectors, or would those have always been
> > a conductor/brakeman?
> >
> > What exactly was the purpose of the baggage/coach and its employee (I
> > assume the guy with his head stuck out the door is an employee)? Mail?
> > Newspapers? I did notice a newspaper truck backed up to the station in
> > another photo.
> >
> > Larry Sallee
> >
>
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