Good Morning Barkeep and all Present; coffee, please; round for the house and $ for the jukebox. Our gas prices are still up there ($3.87) this morning, but about $3.80 one county over - go figger.
Allan - Glad you enjoyed the consist information. Green Mountain Flyer is truly a venerable name in New England railroading.
Rob - I have always liked traction-related work equipment. I remember the PCCs on the Harbourfront line very well. Also recall the Montreal car at Seashore waaaay back a long time ago. As for the double truck Niles car - a keeper! Dry rot and rust are my enemies as well (lol). Also thanks for the collection of F units.
Pete - Pittsburgh-Massena line was daylight for some of the trip depending on the season. I enjoyed your pictures, especially the one at Edinburgh.
OSP sent pichers and posters. CN through Canada is a nice piece of graphic work.
You asked a question about no diner on NYC 12 east of Buffalo. The answer (as always) is in the fine print. Train 12 departed Buffalo at 11:25 p.m. with a 7:30 a.m. arrival in New York. Buffet breakfast was available into New York as the Southwestern handled a 6 double bedroom buffet lounge sleeper between the end point cities.
Morning Cindy , yoiu look well after your firstday behind the ole bar, fine choice of outfit ( Tom’s such a luckey fella [tup] ) I think a number three off the breakfast board oh and the usual “vat” of spiked coffee ]tup] I’ll leave a twenty for a round , keep the change [tup]
**Tom-**The weather has been nice around here lately as well.Only two days over 90 last sunday and monday and that spawned a hellish T-storm that cleared the air , we haven’t seen any rain since. Not really complaining though as we’ve had a record breaker of a summer as far as rainfall goes.You can tell summers nearing it’s end though as the CNE’s on in toronto satrted last friday and will run to labour day.
Glad you liked the F unit’s , I kind of figured that they would flick your bick. Hard to believe I caught that VIA train in Brantford , just random dumb luck as the corridor had gone mostly RDC by then ( both cars and trains ) I have to say that it was the only running F unit I’ve ever seen.The two CP shots were my uncles so they don’t count.
Those sightseer’s were a big hit in the summers in Montreal,they roamed the entire line for a qaurter you got a ride up and around Mount Royal with an onboard commentator.Nice that all four cars were saved and are all still operable including the one at Exporail not that it see’s the light of day all that often.Seashore and Shoreline both have one’s as well and they generally only come out on high days and holiday’s.I can’t at the moment recall where the fourth is,Branford in Con. possibly but I’ll have to check my Montreal streetcars book to know for sure.
**Shane-**Ahh the reason for no dinner make sence now , at least the oassengers had the option of a good breakfast once they arrived at their
As we’ve seen for much of this week, Shane ‘n Rob have been consistent for morning daylite Posts! [bow] Breakfast on the house, Gents! [tup]
Specific comments later in my acknowledgements . . .
Springs loose one of my own . . .
Now Arriving on Track # 1
Back in the Day - Number Twenty One
Railway Post Office
[quote]
In the United States a railway post office, commonly abbreviated as RPO, was a railroad car that was normally operated in passenger service as a means to sort mail en route, in order to speed delivery. The RPO was staffed by highly trained Railway Mail Service postal clerks, and was off-limits to the passengers on the
Round for the house - Holden’s mild for me - afraid the dreaded work has kept me away last few days - and even now this is a brief one. Great RPO pics Tom - I’ve not looked through other recent posts but intned to get back to respond properly to the posts which picked up issues re my last trip report and other points of interest - I’ve scanned this and that and thanks very much to all.
Pete - wanted to give you the heads up on the fact that A1 Tornado (the new steam loco - yep guys new means new - we’ve just built a brand new steam express loco here in the UK) is on trials at the GCR - idea is it will be run in - then ready for passenger haulage at the Oct GCR steam gala - details on the GCR website - if this co-incided with your planned UK visit Pete I thought you might want to be aware in order to see if you could take it in. I relaise this is not always poss to plan - but thought you’d want to be aware (I expect you have already seen all this elsewhere but just in case not).
Holiday weekend here - if at all poss I’ll get some time on the rails with luck.
TOM Many thanks for the great posters from Northern Europe and Canada[tup][tup][tup]. The Irish one shows one of their early diesels. It must be a great trip on a train to ride 100 miles above the Artic Circle[wow]. I wonder if motorcars are still banned from the area like it says in the ad.
I remember traveling in the tramcar at Exporail[^].
Lets hope they are able to keep those Budd cars in service for a few years yet[yeah] they must have been very well built cars to have lasted as long as they have[bow]. I guess it will be the availability of spare parts that may determine there future. I dare say if the trip was not so long that it involves an overnight journey DMUS may have been considered for the Chaluer.
I bet the ABBA girls still look good.[yeah]
Yes the 9Fs were impressive locomotives[bow]. To think some of them only ran for 5 or 6 years on BR[:(]. What a waste[:(!].
Many thanks for the Back in the Day and link on the interesting Railway Post Office[tup][tup][tup]. It seems the first carrying of mails on the railways was almost at the same time on the railways in the U.K. and the U.S[yeah]. It is good to see that some of the RPO cars have been preserved[^], it is a real shame that the railroads are not used today to move rail[:(], although I believe in Britain some of the mail has returned to rail.[tup]
There are a few preserved lines in Britain that have the cars and the equ
Another Holden’s please CINDY[^] now I have got my album to behave[tup].
TOM Many thanks for the latest photos from the cab of RDC #2013 on the TRE in Dallas[tup][tup][tup]. The stations and ROW look in great condition[bow] and it is good to see a photo of Dick[tup].
A couple of photos of Industrial locomotives.
On the Lakeside & Havernwaite Railway in the English Lake District.
At Bolton Abbey on the Yorkshire Dales Railway ‘Annie’ runs round her vintage train.
.
Not sure where these next two photos were taken, I feel it could be on the Gwili Railway perhaps NICK could tell me.[tup]
The loco is a ex War Department Austerity 0-6-0 Saddle Tank.
Good evening gents.Leon just small splash of CR if you don’t mind( for medicinal purposes )[:-]
Tom-Loved seeing the RPO article again seems to me it was first posted during an RPO theme tuseday from back in the day [tup]. Another set of fine photo’s from Dallas as well . I see that there is another fine looking Brunette on the plateform in the one shot as well.
Thanks for the free breakfast I’ll try to take advantage of it tomorrow. [tup]
**Dan-**Good to see you if only briefly [tup]. So is this steamer that is new built built as a replica of an older class or is it a complete brand new off the drawing board kind of thing [?]
**Pete-**Some fine photo’s from Exporail. I see the tail end of a Montreal PCC and one of their two man home built cars [tup] I would guess that their sightseer is tucked in behind the other exhibits. the one they have is one of the two that had an ugly bus windshield installed on the front platform, not terribly attractive.
We are definatly looking forward to having the restoration barn back,we’ve put quite a few things on the back burner for lack of space to work, and yes all the little two legged rodents that like painting things, will now be kept at bay.John is I think 70 now but he’s busy as ever we still see him fairly often actually three of the six original members all in the thier early to mid 70’s are active , we’ve lost two of the original six but then they were both a good ten years older than the rest.John’s actually just finished another book his second on the Niagara St Catharines and
Leon, the usual round of Tuis for all the guys please![yeah]
Pete. You would have gone through Wallsend on your Tyneside Metro trip, it follows the old North Tyneside electric train track formation, except for a couple of new bridges, and the new stations of course. If you do have a stop at Newcastle on the way up to Edinburgh have a Newcastle "Broon" for me too.[sigh][;)] Looks as if you have a fairly tight schedule to keep to while youre over there, hope you manage to fit everything in that you planned. A nice set of industrial loco pix, nice to see they are running that line in the Lake District.[:)][tup]
Rob. See we were only a minute apart with our posts yesterday, boy, was that really close![wow] Those were another fine selection of colourful diesel and trolley pix from you once again, you can be proud of all the hard work youve done at the trolley museum that`s for sure.[bow][tup]
Dan. Good to see you on board again. Thanks for the latest heads up on the new A1 “Tornado”[^] Fergie put up a link to a YouTube video of her first public live steam run, she looks a real beauty, even in matt grey.[:)][tup]
CM3. Would love to see those New England fall tree colours, our neighbour who hails from Queens NYC, says they look so spectacular, she has some fine looking panoramic pix she took a couple of years ago.[:)][tup]
Tom. The noise during a breakdown during the Saturday morning matinee was always the loudest, especially if it happened when a Western was being shown.[banghead] A fine informative post in BITD #21 on the Railway Post Office
Hello Leon, how about an early breakfast, just coffee and a cheese danish, please.
I am sitting here at Stockholm Airport, Arlanda, waiting for the connecting flight up to (almost) the Arctic Circle where mys sister lives. After 11 hours of flying economy class
I can’t say I am looking forward to another 75 minutes in the air. But I’ll most likely will survive.
I had a very quick look at what has been posted Friday but I don’t have time now to make my comments. I saw some photos of old RPO’s so I’ll show one myself. I have shwon it before, but it is an old nice looking car so I’ll post it again.
Morning Cindy a qucik stop in before work. Just a quick number three and coffee. I’ll leave some bucks behind for a round however. [tup] I see that Boris has fed the “zoo” and gone off with his jar of PPF so all seems right in the world.
**Allan-**Good to see you in , I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the latest bunch of photo’s [tup]
**Eric-**A suprise check in from the airport in Sweden 5x[tup] for the thought and effort sir [bow] and he dropped off a fine photo of an RPO as well [bow]. Happy vacation my friend [tup].
Now a couple photo’s to get the ball rolling today and I’m off.
A rare bird, a CN M630 leading a frieght through Brantford in 1991 the year most of these big Alco’s were retired from the CN.
A CP SW1200 RS leading a train in Sault Ste Marie Ontario, proving tha the “RS” in their name ( road switcher ) sometimes happens. Fall 2002
Another “big” Alco CP 4704 an M630 parked in Aberdeen yard in Hamilton in 1997, during the alte 90’s reactivation of many of these engines when CP was power short.
ROB Glad you enjoyed the photos from ExpoRail[tup]. Unfortunately[4:-)] Tom and I did not get the chance to ride the open sided tramcar as it started raining[:(] and the other car was brought back into use.
Thanks for the information on John[tup]. I asked because John looked young in the photo[yeah]. It must have been great to have been there while your museum grew and all those great trolley and works cars restored to their former glory[bow]. I will have to have a look at the book next time I am at ExpoRail.[tup]
Many thanks for the photos[^][tup]. Did the CN reactivate any of their M630s after they retired them in 1991 like the CP did[?]. Great photo of the SW 1200 RS out on the road[^], looks quite small next to the other locomotive.
ALLAN My first visit to the Newcastle area was too late unfortunately to have seen the Tyneside Electrics[sigh] but I did get a circular ride in what is now the Tyne & Wear Metro when it was still BR in one of the many DMUs there were in the Newcastle area[^], I think it was in the early 1970s.
Yes it is a busy visit especially as two of our friends from over here are coming for two weeks and would like to see Ireland as well as some of Britain.
The Lakeside & Hathernwaite Railway is a good line[^] not too long it connects with the boats on Lake Windermere.[tup]
ERIC A pleasant and good surprise to see you in the bar[^][tup][tup]
Good evening folks , back in from a day of toil. So I think another pitcher of that fine draft. I’ll leave a sack of quarters for the coal scuttle as well.Slow day but that’s normal for a saturday.
**Tom-**A fine batch of Union Pacific info and stats [tup] made for an interesting read.Interesting shot of Ted and I in barn one. Of note the car covered by the blue tarp just behind me is 1704 the other single trucked grinder that’s waiting it’s turn at the restoration barn.
I don’t know where the sightseer was when you guys were at Exporail. I checked another railfare publication that I have on the Montreal Streetcar system and in fact they have two of the four preserved ones. Numbers 1 and 4 with only two residing in the US number two at Seashore in Maine and the other number three is at warhouse point in Connecticut.
I liked the newspaper clippings and the classified page from the Gazette made for an nice late afternoon giggle.[tup] BTW I did get the latest email(s) no worries the pipeline still works.
**Pete-**Great shots of the Museum and special train from Alan. interesting caboose / brake van at the end of the train.Looks like a well maintained roundhouse complex as well [bow]
I wonder if your black bag ate those two sightseeing cars, they should have been there , then again you guys did say that you didn’t see the Jubilee that they have there as well, maybe theer was a building or two that you missed.We’ll just all have to go there again that’s all [:D]
That little SW did look lost leading that SD40-2 but the SW1200RS’s were designed for road work as well as yard work.CN did not reactivate any of the big Alco’s , some were sold off to various shortlin
Leon, the usual round of Tuis for all the guys please![yeah]
Rob. We were so close with our posts` again yesterday. Another fine set of diesel loco pix from you again.[:)][tup]
Eric. Great to see you so soon, glad to see you had a safe trip back to the old country.[yeah] Nice shot of the RPO “Silver Pouch”.[:)][tup]
Pete. That Tyneside electric line really deteriorated when they put the DMUs on, the stations were left to look untidy and dilapidated.[:(] I dont like that yellow paint job they use for the Metro equipment, although the Newcastle buses and trolleybuses were that colour BITD. A nice set of pix that Alan took on his recent German trip, please give him my thanks.[^] Sounds as if you will have a very full programme to get through on your trip home.[:)][tup]
Tom. Some great memories from you of those Saturday morning movie shows, we didnt have any of those shows you used to have on Sundays, we used to pay three pence entry fee, and their was a small bag of candy included in the price, chewing gum was a "no no" for the obvious reasons.[bow] Had a good laugh at those classified Ads in the Mentor Village Gazette and those hilarious "Signs of the Times" too.[(-D] Nice re-post from the archives of the info on the UP RR passenger trains in Fallen Flags # 12 with those Drumheads included.[^] The fall tree colours over here are not as varied and intense as those you get in the States going by those photos of our neighbours, they look really spectacular.[wow][:)][tup]
hello Gents a little something frommthe OP1 archieves.
CLASSIC JUICE # 35 MAIL THE ELECTRIC VERSION
So not unlike the more traditional RPO services some interurbans and city streetcar systems offered RPO services as well.In the case of the larger interurbans it was a natural expansion of their mandates. Since they operated intercity routes many would carry sacked mail and packages in the baggage / combine cars operating inside their trains.some even had express motors built to carry any express mail packages and LCL cargo from the station plateforms. Now unlike the steam roads mail hooks generly were not used as the loading was done by hand at the same time baggage and passengers would load up.
Several of Ontario’s radial’s were of coarse owned by CN and CP so they would exchange bagged mail with their parent roads express trains in major jointly served city stations.In CN’s case tthe Montreal and Southern Counties and the Niagara St Catharines and Toronto would exchange mail with CN trains and in both cases handle Royal mail to steamboats as well.Another former GT property the Toronto Suburban likewise handled mail in two express cars they had built in 1917 by Preston car and coach.When CN shut down the TSR in 1931 it’s two express cars were sold off to other operators.One went to the London and Port Stanley which renumbered thiers to car # E1 it would often be seen pulling express boxcars and frieght from the lake Erie docks to London and St thomas Ontario where they had connections to the CN. Since the L&PS also handled freight specifically coal and heating oil from Conneaught Ohio some international mail would come from the Pere Marquette via the car ferry.
<CP #2928 (4-4-4) Jubilee - personal foto from Rob>
Reminder: “Our” Place is CLOSED on SUNDAYs
<but go ahead ‘n slip your messages thru the mail slots on the doors!>
G’day Gents!
Temps made it into the lo-90s (F) for the first time since Aug 5th . . . been a spectacular summer for mid-continent USA, just a winner, fer sure, fer sure. [bow] Summer has returned, but thus far not as oppressive as it has been known to be!
A better than average Saturday, in spite of so few of us! [tup] Began with Rob ended with Rob - nite visits included Allan ‘n Rob! [bow] Of course we had our Interim Governor General, Sir Moderation swing by in the afternoon with another of his “trade mark” <I3> Posts! [tup] Way to go . [yeah]
Don’t know why I didn’t take note, but Pete has gone over the 1,000 mark in Posts! [bow]
Morning folks just a quick good morning pop in on a Sunday,gotta do the paperwork [sigh] I see that the PH suite keys are missing and Tom’s Volvo and Cindy’s Vespa are in their usual spots and Boris is wearing the Aluminium colander on his head and marhing up and down the hall outside the Penthouse suite with a broom , so no queastion about where the “paper work” is being done by the bossman.[:-,][:I]
**Tom-**It’s hard to say where the missing equipment would be at Exporail. If they are like us, teh restoration (s) areas are off limits to the general public ( saftey factors ) They also have a space problem ( more equipment than buildings to house them ) they are building more areas but that takes time,if the resto barns are bieng used as storage that would “splain it” as Ricky would say.
WE lost power and AC in the night which is why I was awake a good rumbler went through around 1sh my time,today and yesterday were our first really sticky 90’s with high humidity in almost a month. Power came back at one thirty but you know what it’s like when you get bounced by the weather like that.
**Allan-**I’ll echo Tom it’s nice to have you in most days ( daze ) of the week helps anchor the joint [tup]
I’ll leave you guys with two photo’s I aquired at a flea market.
.
