By BY MHCs
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Superliner Diner
Conductor
Would you buy a used car from a car dealer that he, himself removed from the road? Amtrak embargoed the MHC's themselves, and before that they had speed restrictions placed on them by most of the major host freight railroads. I get the feeling they are not going to sell very quickly.Amfleet said:
battalion51
Engineer
A large majority of the 1500 series MHC's are located in Hialeah Yard. I'm guessing their fate will be similar to that of the 1400.
Amfleet
Engineer
I'm sure some weary freight railroad that needs box cars desperately will purchase them. Also freight railroads usually don't run their trains of 60mph and the smaller class railroads don't go above 30mph or 40mph.
Viewliner
Engineer
Well, fortunately I don't think many of us will really miss them. Thanks for the link, Amfleet.
The subject of mail handling on passenger trains has always been a tricky one.
Three big things almost killed the passenger train. 1. the Interstate highway system. This allowed faster speeds not only for cars but also for bus, 2. improvements in airlines and 3.(many people don't know this one) the loss of the mail contract, which, I think was about mid-60's.Lots of passenger trains were discontinued almost overnight when that happened. I remember the Santa Fe railroad, for example, was very hard hit.
First class mail, our normal regular "letters", use to go primarily by passenger train, unless you wrote "air mail" in the lower left corner.Eventually you had to start paying more postage for "air mail".....like maybe five cents for it versus three cents for regular.
The railroads did earn revenue in some way from the carrying of mail. HOWEVER, it did interfere with schedules. ....not by the cars being hooked on after the train left the station, but just by the sheer bulk of it. Around Christmas you could count of trains which were heavy with mail being as late as the postman was at your doorstep. In fact many trains heavy on mail had a lot of slack built into their schedules just because of this. Sound familiar?
Many streamliners carried little or no mail. But if you see pictures of trains pre-Amtrak, you will often see 5 or 6 mail cars(storage and bulk mail, not just letters), etc. Some trains might be 16 or 18 cars all grades of mail and about two passenger carrying cars.Mail cars were normally right berhind the loco.
If any of you (or your parents or grandparents)have kept any really old letters, business papers, holiday greeting cards,etc mailed to you etc at home in your cabinets, pre-mid 60's stuff----look at the mail stamp on it. You will often see the train number on which it originated.
Three big things almost killed the passenger train. 1. the Interstate highway system. This allowed faster speeds not only for cars but also for bus, 2. improvements in airlines and 3.(many people don't know this one) the loss of the mail contract, which, I think was about mid-60's.Lots of passenger trains were discontinued almost overnight when that happened. I remember the Santa Fe railroad, for example, was very hard hit.
First class mail, our normal regular "letters", use to go primarily by passenger train, unless you wrote "air mail" in the lower left corner.Eventually you had to start paying more postage for "air mail".....like maybe five cents for it versus three cents for regular.
The railroads did earn revenue in some way from the carrying of mail. HOWEVER, it did interfere with schedules. ....not by the cars being hooked on after the train left the station, but just by the sheer bulk of it. Around Christmas you could count of trains which were heavy with mail being as late as the postman was at your doorstep. In fact many trains heavy on mail had a lot of slack built into their schedules just because of this. Sound familiar?
Many streamliners carried little or no mail. But if you see pictures of trains pre-Amtrak, you will often see 5 or 6 mail cars(storage and bulk mail, not just letters), etc. Some trains might be 16 or 18 cars all grades of mail and about two passenger carrying cars.Mail cars were normally right berhind the loco.
If any of you (or your parents or grandparents)have kept any really old letters, business papers, holiday greeting cards,etc mailed to you etc at home in your cabinets, pre-mid 60's stuff----look at the mail stamp on it. You will often see the train number on which it originated.
Viewliner
Engineer
Bill, thanks for the info on that, found it very interesting to compare with today's methods.
Morris&Essex
Train Attendant
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- Feb 15, 2003
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Bill, would that explain the close proximity of large post offices to stations such as New York Penn and Phila 30th St.? I never really thought about the connection between passenger trains and mail until a few weeks ago as I was walking down Spruce St. in Philly. Thanks for bringing this up.
Yes, EolNEw Branch and all....that does help explain it. The mail really was handled by passenger trains, so often the post office would be close.There were actually even mini-post offices at the stations themselves.
When a train arrived the station, THREE things would happen, 1. the passengers were be boarded and deboarded, 2. the baggage loaded and unloaded 3. the mail loaded and unloaded. In fact the real tip-pff that a train was REALLY about to arrive (regardless of what the bulletin board said) would be if the baggage handler and the mail handlers came out from their space and started down the platform. They had a head start over the passengers for logistic reasons.
The above helps explain my statement that streamliners in many cases did not have mail cars, due to the time consumed by that. Exceptions to everything, of course.
When a train arrived the station, THREE things would happen, 1. the passengers were be boarded and deboarded, 2. the baggage loaded and unloaded 3. the mail loaded and unloaded. In fact the real tip-pff that a train was REALLY about to arrive (regardless of what the bulletin board said) would be if the baggage handler and the mail handlers came out from their space and started down the platform. They had a head start over the passengers for logistic reasons.
The above helps explain my statement that streamliners in many cases did not have mail cars, due to the time consumed by that. Exceptions to everything, of course.
Some of you might from time to time come across the term "RPO". You will see this in pre-Amtrak books , you might even see it in your modeling kits. It stands for "Railway Post Office", and it meant, of course, the mail car(i.e. first class mail, letters). Perhaps many of you already know this... I don't know....it is an out of date term.....but I BET some of you have encountered it.
battalion51
Engineer
Right now mail is posing a safety hazard on Silver Service. when a second bag car is not added to handle mail, the carates are being placed in the baggage room. This presents two problems, half your car taken up by mail, and two mail crates flying all over the damn car. One Conductor said he was nearly run over by mail crates that were not secured, and also placed on the wrong side of the car in New York. So Amtrak needs to make a decision here, either build/recycle new mail cars (ExpressTrak cars would be fine), or get rid of mail all together. I don't have a problem with RoadRailers and I don't have a problem with ExpressTrak cars. What I do have a problem with is when safety is being compromised for mail.
Amfleet
Engineer
Puting express cars and roadrailers aside I think a safe shelf system could be installed in half the baggage car that could hold and keep mail organized.
battalion51
Engineer
While it's a good idea in theory, the truth is that Conductors need every inch of room they can get in the baggage cars. More often than not the piles will reach the ceiling, when a full car is available for him to use. I've also said it before, and I'll say it again, shelves don't work when it comes to baggage. It's hard enough to get the luggage into the car and into its pile without having to try to get it on a shelf. And while it may be able to be secured, stuff still bounces around, and anything that falls off a shelf is not going to be a pretty thing. Also there is a fundamental problem with the shelving, mail is loaded in bogies that are put on/removed from the train with a forklift. This way a large amount of mail can be moved at once. The MHC cars were great in theory, but the truth is that dedicated mail cars are a must. whether it's converted Heritage cars or whatever, the mail needs its own car.
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