Re: PC: PC Misplaced?

[Philip.Kuhl@xxxxxxx]

At 17:48 9/16/97 -0500, you wrote:

>
>I recall the story, it happened in the early '70s. As I recall, it 
>was in Pennsylvania. However, it was a mail storage car, not an RPO. 
>I doubt that an RPO could have been misplaced like that, since they 
>were manned.
>
>Peter King in NY
>
I'm sorry to be picking nits, but here I go!  Actually, I could very well
have been an RPO car.  The then-US Post Office Department cancelled most of
the extant RPO runs in 1967 -- this step ended up causing the demise of a
great many passenger trains that beforehand had been able to survive on the
meagre combination of mail revenues and passenger ticket sales.

The RPO cars, of course, continued to exist and were in rather good
operating condition.  Many railroads continued to use the RPOs, not as Post
Offices but simply as cars in which to handle bulk mail.  I can't swear that
Penn Central did this, but given their shortage of just about everything I
would bet they did.  I took the overnight run (Sorry, my timetable
collection is in Washington DC at the moment while I am in Belgium!) from
Rochester, New York to Grand Central in June of 1969 -- the train was always
almost all mail cars, plus a couple of coaches and a 10-6 Pullman
masquerading as a Sleepercoach, and my recollection is of several
non-functioning RPOs in the consist.  This was some years ago, and I was 15,
so I won't swear to that either!

Phil
Philip.Kuhl -AT- ping.be