Nostalgia

[jesse]

After looking over some of the layouts and scenery....I noticed something is missing.  Back when I was a kid in the 20s and 30s, my grandmother ran a large boarding house in Tulsa.  Most of her boarders were railroad men who worked for Frisco.  We had Firemen, Brakemen, Engineers and Conductors.  One of our boarders was an engineer from Rolla, Missouri named Carl Bradford.  Brad for short.  When school was out during the summer, I would ride with Brad up in the cab of his engine.  I was in hog heaven.  Brad handled mostly freights but once in awhile he would fill in on a passenger run.  In those days, most of the U.S. Mail went by train, and all of the consists had a U.S. Post Office Car.  One of our next door neighbors, Jerry Barton worked for the post office in the mail cars. At home, he had a large box built into his wall of one room and it was nothing  but pigeon holes.  He would practice sorting 'mail' into those things for hours.  He told me it was to build up his speed because the mail had to be ready for drop off at the towns they went thru.  The thing that I notice missing was the pole and arm that was mounted just off the station platform that held the mail sacks.  On some runs, the train did not stop at the town so all the mail was snatched by a arm and hook as the train went thru.  I just wondered if anyone had seen scale models of these things or if they are even available.  BTW, I'm still just an 84 year old kid at heart

Jesse

[Steve Stockham]

Jesse,
  Funny you should mention that... I think it was in Finescale Railroader magazine four or five years ago but there was a diorama with this scene that had been modelled and the mail sack pole was a featured item! I believe the scale was either Fn3(1:20.3) or On3. You're right though, it is a detail that is often missing when we model stations!

[SteamGene]

I believe that Tichy Train Group has the mail sack pole.  I'm not 84,b ut my memory is the outgoing mail was picked up by the RPO on the fly and the incoming mail was tossed onto the station platform.
Gene

[jesse]

100% Correct Gene.  I guess the only thing they didn't throw off the train were the milk cans.

Jesse

[bwreno]

Hi,
Go to www.rrtrains.com, google 'mail':

Precision Scale  p/n 585-33193
Sequoia Scale  p/n 135-2031, 2032
Cal Scales p/n 190-345
Durango Press p/n 254-70
Creative Model Assoc.  p/n 363-1001
Selly Finishing Touches  p/n 675-641

all are different styles.

bob

[Seasaltchap]

Incoming mail tossed out to the platform - pity anyne about sweeping the platform!

I think it is more likely the bag swung out on an arm and was grabbed by the trackside equipment into a net, OR where such devices exclusive to the UK's Traveling PO.

The postal staff would count the clikety-clack of the rail joints from a known point to know when to put the arm out so they didn't take down anything else along side of the track.

Hornby do a TPO set with lineside gear.

Milk churns(cans) were a big traffic from local country stations in the UK until the mid-1950's. The GWR had special vehicles with the telegraphic code of "Syphon".

[Seasaltchap]

Photo of UK lineside equipment, re-built on preserved line.

[Seasaltchap]

Sorry, this board makes a mess, into block graphics.

[gardenrail]

Hornby or Triang in the late 50s/early 60s produced a set which modelled the London Midland (Midland Region) mail cars with pick up/drop off facilities and the matching lineside gear.

On the other hand, I have never seen models of automatic single-line equipment.

[Jim Banner]

Stewart, how about trying that image again.  The problem with your image has nothing to do with this board.  It looks exactly the same if you download it directly from photo bucket.  You can check it at its URL:
http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r188/seasaltchap/tpo.jpg

I have never heard of using a net for catching mail in North America, but that is not to say it never happened.  But I would be willing to bet that platform sweepers never got hit by flying mail bags twice.

[Seasaltchap]

Jim : I agree, it looks ok in Photobucket, but twixt Photobucket and this site it converts to block graphics.

I think this site stores its own copy of pictures, because I have deleted on Photobucket, and the picture persists on this site.

Regards

[Seasaltchap]

PS

The UK TPO's also collected bags from trackside equipment into nets that swung in and out from the carriage.

Google gives plenty of entries "Travelling Post Office"

[Bill Baker]

The 2006 special issue of "How To Build Realistic Layouts" has a picture on page 21 of a guy that made an operating mail pickup system. His RPO car has a magnet in the door and as it runs by the sack pole, a small metal extension of the RPO reaches out and grabs the mail sack (which is made from metal) and it is captured by the magnet. Really cool looking operation.  I wish I knew how to post a link to show the picture.

[Jim Banner]

Stewart, you might want to go back and reread my earlier posting.  I did NOT say it looked fine on photobucket.  I told you that the photo at the url you used looked exactly like what showed up on Bach-Man's Board.  Go up a couple of posts, click on it, and see.  It is still there at this time, and no, it is not just in my cache.  I checked it on my spare computer and on my wife's computer, neither one of which has seen that image before.  And it STILL looks like it does above.  Did you possibly link to a tiny thumbnail or something?

[Seasaltchap]

Jim, I am confused. I posted to Photobucket, and it appeared o'k there under my personal viewing; however when the IMG feature was used on this board for the transfer, it comes out in block graphics.

As "gardenrail" notes, UK Hornby have a working TPO set, not only in LMS, but also GWR livery.

The last run of the UK TPO trains was only recent, 1/19/2001. They originally started in the UK in the 1880's

Regards