| Northern Pacific Railway RPO 1102 at Saint Paul, Minnesota on May 22, 1984, Kodachrome by Chuck Zeiler. To explain why there are vestiblues at both ends, the following is from the Minnesota Transportation Museum's web site: On June 7th, 1914, Pullman Standard outshopped a 24 chair drawing room buffet parlor car named "Reba," plan 2417B, lot 4265. In August of that year it went to the Northern Pacific, where it eventually became 86-passenger coach number 631. (Sources are not entirely in agreement - one even claims Reba was sold to the NYC in September 1941.) In 1947 coach 631 was rebuilt into triple-combine 1102, with a 15' Railway Post Office (RPO) compartment, a 37' baggage/express compartment, and a 20' coach section which could seat 20. The RPO compartment had a full-sized letter case, mail pouch, newspaper racks, overhead letterboxes and stalls for storage mail. On the floor of the baggage/express compartment were "fish racks" used to drain melt water from ice from refrigerated express items such as commercial fish from Minnesota Lakes. Mechanical systems included a generator for electricity, steam heat, and a coal-fired hot water heater. Total inside length was 72' 10", outside length 82' 4.5", and it weighed 158,120 lbs. In this configuration it served in mixed passenger/freight trains on branch lines which had few passengers but a decent express business and a mail contract. It is known to have served the James & Wilton, Carrington & Turtle Lake, James & Oakes and the Leeds & Jamestown routes on trains 157 and 158 in North Dakota, and also the Little Falls-Funkley-Kelliher RPO route in Minnesota. In 1965, No. 1102 was modified as Northern Pacific's Signal Department training car, and renumbered 1931. It was used throughout the entire NP system to teach train crews about Centralized Traffic Control (CTC) operations. The baggage compartment contained switch machines, switch locking mechanisms and signals for the practical demonstrations which took place in the classroom area that had been the passenger compartment. With the Burlington Northern merger in 1970, 1931 was retired and sat, the victim of vandals, until 1976 when it was purchased by the Minnesota Transportation Museum. Working in rented space in the NP's Como Shops (today's Bandana Square in St. Paul) volunteers restored the car to operation in its post-1947 triple-combine appearance. The St. Paul Post Office and Retired Railway Clerks donated sacks and other equipment to fully outfit the interior of the RPO compartment. Restoration was complete in 1978. http://www.mtmuseum.org/ |