My first congregation was in Burlington IA, and two of the older men there were
retired rail postal clerks, presumably having worked the CB&Q mainline trains.I
remember their mentioning having to carry .38 calibre revolvers (issued, I
believe) to protect the mails. Although I think there is a special interest
group forrail postal buffs, it seemed more a subgroup within philately. So far
as I know, the only full treatment of RPO's is something titled "Mail by Rail"
from the 1950's.If I remember what I've heard/read operations such as Bob
remembered usually had bagged or pouched mail, dropped off at each station to
be picked up bythe postmaster, who also brought pouches of unsorted outbound to
be sorted later by a full RPO or at a more central sorting center, no real
sorting en routefor the branch. And, to state the obvious, until modern times
(1960's or so) the local postmaster was still a political appointee, patronage
for supporting the successful presidentialcandidate (and the campaign manager
usually was postmaster general in the cabinet). When the government was much
smaller throughout most of US history, thepostmastership was one of the few
patronage appointments available to the Federal government.
Jace Kahn
General Manager
Ceres & Canisteo RR Co./Champlain County Traction Co.
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
