Greetings, maybe someone here can help?. I need the height of the mail bag hooks on R.P.O. cars, Someone had told me before, but not writing it down at the time I’ve forgotten and can not find a site that has it. Was there a set height (from the floor of the car ) or was it just centered vertically in the door opening. Thanks for any help , Otto
I don’t have the height, but it certainly wasn’t centered vertically:
The above shows the approximate location. I would expect that the Post Office had an exact height, though.
Ed
I think the photo supplied by Ed is fairly representative. The dimension is going to be set by “height above rail head” rather than height above the floor of the car - so that the hooks and the suspended bags all match. I do not know if there was a varience between different railroads, but the ones I have seen all seem to have the hook about 2/3 of the way up the side door - optimal height for the clerk to operate.
Bill
i will have to ask a retired engineer i know. he once missed the orders and got the mail sack by mistake. nearly jerked him out of the cab. it did dislocate his shoulder.
charlie
From PRR plans I have the top of the bag is 10 feet above the rail head.
Not quite the info you asked for, but maybe some interesting reading:
mail bag catcher patent: http://www.google.com/patents?id=pHEAAAAAEBAJ&pg=PA1&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=1#v=onepage&q&f=false
A senate committee investigation of a death caused by a mail catcher: http://books.google.com/books?id=xh4vAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA78&lpg=PA78&dq=mail+bag+catcher+dimensions&source=bl&ots=83Xfs9Vjvm&sig=wPEGzlw_KOCG9bgsZcXJfqgaKoY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=xyuIUPvUJeen0AGekYDIDg&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=mail%20bag%20catcher%20dimensions&f=false (see page 78)
An O-scale model w/drawings showing some mail crane dimensions: http://token3rail.blogspot.com/2008/01/o-scale-mail-crane_21.html (drawing has a note stating that centerline of mounting on car was at the same height as the center of the hanging mailbag)