My Stepfather was a postmaster in the small town I grew up in. Also an
aunt was a postal clerk--like I said a small town! Anyway the town was
served by the Milwaukee road with two daily trains pulling the unique
branchline combines. So the baggage section held both REA,
sorted/bagged mail and miscellaneous LCL items (cream cans mostly). The
clerk was charged with carrying a side arm to protect the mail!
Apparently he also carried a half-pint flask with him, so I don't know
if it would have done any good. The mail contract was the only thing
keeping the line operating with two trains. Sometime in the late 50's
the mail system was changed so one train per day handled everything.
Unfortunately the train and it's schedule kept getting worse, so the
mail patrons complained, so it wasn't long before the mail went to
trucks from a drop-off point from Mobridge, South Dakota. Occasionally
the contract driver, who had a pickup truck with a homemade covered
topper, would have to leave much of it behind because of space. Again
folks complained that they didn't get their SS checks or the package
from Sears. So when the Olympian Hiawatha was cut back to Aberdeen,
South Dakota things became more reliable for a long time except during
the Christmas season. The line had a working RPO for much of the time
plus some pre-sorted bags of mail in boxcars. However the third-class
stuff in the boxcars wouldn't be shipped until the car was full. I
don't know if that was a RR thing or a PO thing.
I've been looking into finding out more information but it's pretty
scarce for these far-flung locations. Step-father had to juggle the
needs of the patrons with practical part of all this. I do know that to
ship a letter to a small town about 15 miles away (on the SOO Line) the
mail would have to go to some junction town in Minnesota and come back.
It was a 20 minute ride or about 4 days via mail.
Bob Werre
PhotoTraxx
On 2/24/12 5:20 PM, Ed wrote:
> "Mail Storage" meant mail that was shipped from one location to
another without being "worked" en-route. The opposite of the RPO car
where mail is sorted, picked-up and dropped off en-route. Many
"baggage cars" were also used in "mail storage" service on passenger
trains.
> Pieter E. Roos
Gents...
Taking this RPO/storage/baggage topic a bit further.......One common
question is: "Where in the train should the RPO be positioned -- ahead
of the baggage cars or behind the baggage cars?"
The answer, I believe, depends on whether the RPO is a "working" car
or merely a "storage/transport" car. If the RPO has men inside
actively sorting the mail, it is then a working car and belongs ahead
of the baggage car(s) closer to the engine. If the RPO does not have
any sorting activity taking place inside, then it is a
storage/transport car and can be (should be?) behind the baggage cars
closer to the passenger cars. Or, it might be the vice versa. The
details escape me, but the general idea is firmly entrenched in a
mushy brain.
Cheers....Ed L.
www.sscale.org
