Railway Post Office cars (RPO) were regularly in head-end of passenger consists, but, was it common for there to be MORE than one of such car? I know that it was common for several baggage/mail cars to be used together with ONE RPO... specially for secondary trains... but... how about the premium trains?
I know that the ATSF Fast Mail Express many times had more than one. Especially between Chicago and Kansas City. They were always adding and subtracting RPOs along the way. I guess the crews did not want to travel trans con and were more efficient handling a shorter territory. I just looked at the consist information in Fred Frailey's Quarter Century of Santa Fe Consists book. For a while in the winter of 1953-54 there were actually three RPOs that went all the way between Chicago and LA. However most the other time they were changed out in Kansas City.
Here is another question: I understand that the post office compartment was "secure" in the sense that only authorized personnel could enter it. Does this mean that an RPO/Baggage car needed to be turned so that the baggage compartment always was connected to the "public" part of the train? Thanks.
The RPOs were locked to prevent anyone from wondering into the car and the postal workers were all armed with pistols. On the Milwaukee the larger RPOs were confined to routes where the was a large volume of mail to be sorted enroute. Most Milwaukee trains had smaller RPO sections from 15' to 30' RPOs, when a smaller RPO compartment was used and the baggage section was used to storage mail the entire car would be locked. When a baggage car was handled in a train and was loaded with mail the car was sealed and sometimes an armed messenger rode the car. The baggage RPO cars were not usually turned as the RPO and the baggage compartments were separated , sometimes there was a small door connecting the two compartments that was just big enough for a man to crawl through. Railway express agency often times handled large amounts of cash and an armed messenger also rode the baggage car. Baggage cars for passenger luggage were usually the last car ahead of the passenegr cars. Passenger luggage was a small part of the business that required baggage cars. The Majority of baggage cars were for either the post office or one of the express agencys and let there be no doubt that the railroads made ALOT of money in that business. Randy
Another yes to multiple RPOs especially on long distance routes. Also some RPOs only operated within several divisons, thus a RPO might be set out at a point and freshly crewed and stocked RPO added at that point. The RPO that was set out would be picked up by the train heading in the opposite direction once again crewed and stocked for the return trip. Mail that was intended for long distance delivery was usually already sorted and bagged and usually loaded in a mail/baggage car. So mail from NY City intended for Spokane or Seattle Washington would be on board a Pennsy Baggage car that would be switched onto the GN Fast Mail at Chicago and run all the way to the end point. So it was not unusual to see foreign road cars all the way out to Washington State. Thus my Fast Mail has N&W and Southern cars in it. The RPO was like the local postman picking up and dropping off on the way. One other feature of some RPOs was that they had a mail slot in the car sides where a person could mail a letter if the train was stopped in station. It just needed to have a stamp on the envelope since the RPO didn't sell stamps.
There was also a requirement that if you finished before everyone else, you went to help the rest, and then even the next crew. Postal/baggage cars would be set up postal apartment to postal apartment, but I'm not sure if that was necessarily the rule. I'm sure it would have helped in merging mail into bags and aiding the crew next door, if needed. That's the way to do it. Plus you can do some switching with a dedicated mail train.
