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Illinois Railway Museum's Chicago, Burlington & Quincy RPO (Railway Post Office) train reverses past the mailbag crane. I managed to catch it -right- at the moment the catch arm on the RPO car grabbed the mailbag!
RPOs were used to collect mail from places along a given passenger train route, and sort the mail enroute, allowing a very fast delivery time. The last RPO service ended in 1977, although Amtrak continued shipping mail (though not sorting it on the trains) until 2004.
RPOs were used to collect mail from places along a given passenger train route, and sort the mail enroute, allowing a very fast delivery time. The last RPO service ended in 1977, although Amtrak continued shipping mail (though not sorting it on the trains) until 2004.
Category Photography / Miscellaneous
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 600 x 800px
File Size 305.2 kB
It is at a museum, but an actual demonstration of the process. They have a fully-restored RPO car and working mail crane. So I caught this shot on the fly as it was happening.
Train orders on the fly have been discontinued for the most part, but a few locations still have the hoops that were used to hand the paperwork up to the engineer while in motion. JB Tower in West Chicago, Illinois is one such place, and word on the street is that the train order hoops are still used from time to time.
Train orders on the fly have been discontinued for the most part, but a few locations still have the hoops that were used to hand the paperwork up to the engineer while in motion. JB Tower in West Chicago, Illinois is one such place, and word on the street is that the train order hoops are still used from time to time.
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