My firm has recently purchased a freight depot that we are restoring to historical specs and will use for office space. We have discovered 4 baggage carts and we want to restore them to the original colors. Does anyone have any information on baggage carts - or photos? Or can you direct me to a more appropriate forum for such an inquiry? Thank you in advance!
"depotdummy" welcome to Trainboard! I think on another thread Kurt Moose replied that they were mostly green with red spoked wheels. Back when my dad worked for the REA, I spent a lot of time at the depot with him when he met trains. This photo taken at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in 1993 is a good repro of what was. I know I have more, gotta find 'em. I think the US Mail ones were all green.
Thanks so much for the photos! The depot is in Chattanooga, TN. I think it was part of the Southern Railway system. These photos will be very helpful. Thanks again!
Welcome to the TrainBoard Depot Dummy! Please do keep us up to date on your progress restoring the Depot and carts! Many of us model them and you could add details we should use! I remember they had brakes to keep them from rolling off onto the tracks. One kind of cart painted black, that they kept down at one end of the loading dock, was usually stacked with slatted crates of chickens, boxes with little holes of baby chicks, and cages with dogs, cats, baby pigs, etc. The green carts were usually trunks, like Fitz has shown, and other freight like tires, batteries, tractor parts and the like. Then there were some that were varnished, painted black under carriage, with red wheels, that were for passenger luggage, suitcases, small personal boxes, Hat Boxes, etc. Then the Railway Express Agency, mail carts were a darker green that were up by the REA shed, kept in a locked fenced area. Sometimes there were armed guards when valuables were shipped by REA. I think the red wheels were for safety, because the big loop handles were also painted red. (Some had that paint almost all worn off though.) Red Caps handled the varnished carts for passengers, and Black Caps pulled, loaded and unloaded all the other carts. Station Masters, always carrying their clip boards, had dark green or black uniforms, similar to the Conductors. (Each cart had a small box to hold the way bills or bills of lading, that a Station Master checked off as each cart was loaded onto and off of a train.) Some stations were boring as a cemetery between trains, then just before a train was due in, the place sprang to life busy as an ant hill with passengers, bells clanging summoning all the Bell Caps to the desk to get their assignments! Then the Bell Caps all scurrying around doing their particular jobs, some helping passengers, others working outside loading the train, until the train departed. Then it all slowed down afterwords, and became quiet again. Big stations were exciting places at train time! The most exciting to me was Grand Central Station in New York! The smallest station I remember was at Searcy, Arkansas, all of one room a bit larger than the average 2 car garage on the D.K.& S. RR. Shown here: This was as I remember it, back in the days of steam and the Rock Island Rockets were starting to run.
I'll be glad to post some photos of the actual baggage carts in their current state as well as the depot - restoration has just started inside and it's a beautiful building. I'm not sure how to post pictures, though. Can someone give instructions?
Given your question the odds are you don't have a place to upload the photos too so I would suggest you get a RailImages account. Once you have that, you can upload photos from your PC to RailImages where TrainBoard can access them. Once you get through posting the first one you will find it easy. Let us know if you need help getting a RailImages account setup. < START BY CLICKING HERE >
