Jack: M&E Trains (mail and express) are a category all their own and interesting to model... The C&EI car is a class "Bx" car, defined as "A box car (new, rebuilt or converted) constructed and equipped to render it suitable for passenger train service ..."
They were used a lot to haul mail that had already been sorted to a destination. Sometimes that could be in a regular passenger train consist and other times in dedicated M&E trains that ran on passenger schedules think of the "Fast Mail"... In the case of the C&EI cars, mail storage service was probably to cities on the line. They could also carry express packages for the post office or on contract to REA, although less later. I have at least one reference to a C&EI express box car in a 44-car Pennsy M&E train from NYC to Philadelphia on December 22, 1965; all mail and packages as part of that year's Christmas rush. If you want to dig further, RMC did a two-part article on head end cars in April and May 1992. There is also a book with the highly original title of "Moving Mail and Express by Rail" (E. M. DeRouin, Pixels Publishing, 2007). I should warn you though; the book is a research tool - full of charts, documents, train movements and consists for M&E train geeks - like me...! <G> Jim Kindraka Plymouth, WI --- In [email protected], Jack Wyatt <cjwyatt@...> wrote: > > If I knew a bit more about how they were used by the C&EI and possibly > connections, I might buy one yet. > > I don't think it has Railway Express markings on it. I had assumed that all > express service in that era was through Railway Express, but I'm beginning to > wonder if some railroads with express boxcars were actually expediting > certain > freight business. > > Jack Wyatt > ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
