WASH & BRIS RPO TR 41

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Southern Pelican in 1952
Posted by: "Charles Freericks"
charlesfreericks at verizon.net
charles_freericks
Date: Wed Jan 2, 2008 10:39 pm ((PST))

My dad took this picture of the Southern Pelican (I
believe) train #41 at Bristol, VA in 1952 on a journey
from New Jersey to Sardis MS (I think he was on the
way home by this time).

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=217611&nseq=0

Anyone able to add any information based on what is
visible?  Thanks.


January 3, 2008

Hello, Charles:

Thanks for posting a wonderful photo of the Pelican at
Bristol in 1952.  I hope that you'll post other
pictures that your dad took.

The first car behind the locomotive appears to be a
Railway Express boxcar, perhaps one of their
mechanical reefers.  There are three additional
storage mail cars, with a 60-feet Southern Railway
heavyweight RPO.  Even though the train ran over the
N&W between Lynchburg and Bristol, the Southern
Railway provided the RPO equipment used on this train.

This is what the usual consist was for train 41 over
the N&W in 1954.  From what is visible, it appears to
be similar to train make-up in 1952.

CONSIST OF TRAIN NO. 41   LYNCHBURG TO BRISTOL
Effective March 15, 1954

Storage Mail Car			(A) (B)		Greensboro to Cincinnati
Storage Mail Car			(B)		Greensboro to Cincinnati
Storage Mail Car (Sealed)		(C)		Washington to
Birmingham
Postal Car						Washington to Chattanooga
Baggage Car						Washington to New Orleans      
Partition Coach					Washington to New Orleans
Coach							Washington to New Orleans
Dining Car						Roanoke to Birmingham
Sleeper (10 Sec 1 Compt 1 DRoom)		Washington to
Roanoke
Sleeper (10 Sec 1 DR 2 Compt)			Washington to
Shreveport
Sleeper (10 Roomette 6 DB Room)		New York to New
Orleans
Sleeper (10 Roomette 6 DB Room)		New York to Knoxville
Sleeper (10 Roomette 6 DB Room)		New York to Bristol
Sleeper (10 Roomette 6 DB Room)	(D) 	New York to
Williamson
Sleeper (12 Sec 1 DR)			(E) 	Richmond to Bristol

ALL CARS OPERATE DAILY UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

Notes:		(A) Daily except Monday from Sou at Lynchburg.
		(B) From Sou Train 12 at Lynchburg.
		(C) Daily except Monday and Tuesday from Sou at
Lynchburg.
		(D) To Train No. 15 at Roanoke.
		(E) From Train No. 15 at Roanoke.

	Lynchburg to Roanoke			Roanoke to Bristol

	11 Cars - Mon				10 Cars - Mon Tues
	12 Cars - Tues				11 Cars   other days
	13 Cars   other days


A note about the first two storage mail cars, operated
from Greensboro and Cincinnati.  One might expect that
they would have been taken off at Roanoke and put onto
an N&W train from Roanoke to Cincinnati.  However,
that does not appear to be the actual routing.  Since
this was primarily a Southern Railway train, I suppose
the storage mail cars continued to Chattanooga, the
were attached to a CIN & CHATT train operated up the
CNO&TP to Cincinnati.  This seems to be a very
circuitous routing.  However, the Post Office
Department's Postal Transportation Service ordinarily
looked at what train arrangement advanced the mail. 
That is, distance was secondary to the overall transit
time.  If Greensboro to Cincinnati via Lynchburg and
Chattanooga yielded the shortest transit time when
compared to other routings, that was a justification
for using it.

Happy new year,

Frank Scheer
f_scheer at yahoo.com