Pa. railroad calendar delivered 63 years late

Save the calendar and use it in 2017, the next year that will be the same as 1950 (non leap year that starts on Sunday)

Riders on the realms of railroads

Show your tickets enjoy your trip

Ye who pull the coal and ore loads

Climb the mountains back do not slip

Hear the bell ring hear the choo choo

Hear the train come rolling in.

In the mid sixties me and some buddies were hunting in a wooded area near Southern Railroad’s W line. We came upon an old building that had been abandoned for quite some time judging by the size of trees growing against the sides of it. We went inside and found undelivered mail strewn everywhere. In retrospect I wish I had made some effort to notify someone about this but I didn’t. That area has been “developed” now. Old building is long gone- maybe someone else did the right thing.

I’m somewhat amazed that no one posted the follow-up article, with what was, as one noted radio reader would say, “The REST of the story!!!”

Long story short: The calendar was a 2012 eBay purchase that went astray from its 2012 packaging.

http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/1950-railroad-calendar-arrived-to-times-after-ebay-purchase-1.1425006

"Howard Rue planned to frame the 1950 Pennsylvania Railroad calendar he purchased on eBay. But when the package arrived at his suburban Chicago home in November, the shipping tube was damaged and the calendar was missing.

Last week, it was delivered to The Times- Tribune - apparently for the second time. A Saturday Times- Tribune story about the calendar being delivered by the U.S. Postal Service appeared in newspapers and on websites across the country. The calendar was originally mailed in December 1949 from the Philadelphia publicity department of the railroad, to James W. Flanagan, the paper’s general manager at the time. Mr. Flanagan died the same month the calendar was first mailed.

Earlier this week, Mr. Rue pulled up the Yahoo website from his computer at work. One of the top stories was about the calendar and its appearance at the paper, 63 years late.

"I couldn’t believe it. I said, ‘That’s got to be it.’ " Mr. Rue said.

He contacted the seller, Eric Engman, of Warwick, Mass., and both men contacted The Times-Tribune.

Mr. Engman placed the item on eBay in November, after cleaning out the attic of his late father. A railroad memorabilia collector, his father had received the calendar from a member of the Flanagan family years ago, Mr. Engman said.

The calendar, which features the painting “Crossroads of Commerce” by Grif Teller, was advertised on eBay as being in its original mailing tube. The

Sue the post office for late delivery…there’s got to be a legal action in there somewhere. The poor fellow never got his calendar and may have missed some important appointments.

Excuse me if I don’t hold my breath waiting.

Could it be that some sensitive postal worker had known Flanagan and, knowing that he had passed on, put the calendar aside, intending to deliver it to the newspaper later? And, of course, “later” never came for some reason that we can never know.

[:D] In this calendar game of “ping pong” was there some postage due? Did the postage get paid? , or was it marked “return to sender” ? Just curious, I think no trains were damaged or tracks also in this post.

Cannonball

Do I get bonus points, if I say something nice about the Post Office, and keep it train related?

We have a souvenir we found in our old, circa 1890 house. It was a letter, to the owner of the house in 1903. The front of the letter was postmarked Pittsburgh, PA, 9:03 a.m of whatever day it was. On the back, was a postmark from Sioux Falls, SD, from the very next day. In 1903, that letter had traveled 1062 miles in somewhere between 15 and 39 hours on the train. Not too shabby.

I suspect that RPO Postmarks have value to collectors.

If you folk would take the time to read the post above by LNER4472 on 01/07/2013 @ 3:46 PM about the “rest of the story” you could put to rest the theories about how the post office “lost” it in 1949/50.

maybe a chronological list would help

1949… calendar is printed and delivered to the RR and then mailed AND DELIVERED to the newpaper editor.

1949 one month later… the receipant dies before taking the calendar out of the original mailing tube and his personal effects (including this mailing tube with the calendar) were transfered to his surviving family.

2012… calendar in its original mailing tube is put up for auction on E-bay and is purchased.

Seller sends the original mailing tube to the purchaser in an outer mailing tube.

Outer mailing tube comes open and dumps the original inner tube out. Post office delivers the empty outer tube to the buyer

AND

The P.O., finding the inner tube still addressed and bearing canceled postage delivers it to the original addressee at the newspaper and the story of the “late delivery” hits the news wire.

E-bay purchaser gets empty outer mailing tube, contacts E-bay seller and gets a replacement for his cash outlay. (Seller takes the financial hit for not securing the outer mailing tube better.)

2013…E-bay purchaser reads the story and explains it all.

newspaper decides to keep the calendar to do with it as they please.

End of story.

Where is Paul Harvey when this forum needs ‘the rest of the story’ to knock them out of their fantasy world.

RIP Paul!

Perhaps we should all make a mental note about this. Its line of thinking explains a lot of lore about a lot of things. Perhaps we need a special section for urban legends.

A similar thing happened recently in Chicago when someone sent a movie-souvenir “Professor Ravenwood’s diary” from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

The “diary” was in a fictitious envelope addressed to Prof. Jones (that is, Indy) at the University of Chicago and bearing fictitious 1930s Egyptian postage. That in turn was inside a real envelope addressed to the real recipient of the movie memorabilia.

When the fake envelope fell out of the real envelope, the Postal Service added a zip code to the fake envelope and sent it on its way to the U of C!

At the University, the catch-all for odd mail is the Admissions office. http://uchicagoadmissions.tumblr.com/post/37809971913/indiana-jones-mystery-package-we-dont-really The receipt of this oddity made its way around the local and national media http://chicagoist.com/2012/12/13/university_of_chicago_admissions_de.php#photo-1 until the mystery was solved! http://boingboing.net/2012/12/19/solved-uchicagos-indiana-jo.html

Sounds to me like a success for the Postal Service – we don’t question it, we just deliver – not a failure at all. [8D]

It’s just like the Post Office says: “We deliver for you.”