Agents?

[NW Mailing List]

Thanks for this additional information. My father worked at an auto
dealership, but seemed to always have a supply of notepads and pencils with
the ATSF logo on them and something like "Ship and Travel Santa Fe All the
Way". I would imagine that some "traveling" agent may have been trying to
influence him in the shipping and travel area. I know he didn't go looking
for these items, they came to him.

 

Robert Mee

on Outlook 2003

from Home on XP Home

  _____  

From: nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org
[mailto:nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org] On Behalf Of NW Mailing List
Sent: Monday, July 07, 2008 9:33 PM
To: NW Mailing List
Subject: Re: Agents?

 

Harry,

 

I seem to remember that these attendants on the Powhatan Arrow were called
Passenger Service Representatives instead of Traveling Passenger Agents.
Maybe some third party will referee.

 

My understanding of the role of a Traveling Passenger Agent is illustrated
by the following item from the March 12, 1904, Bluefield Daily Telegraph
that I posted here back in March of this year:

 

PERSONALS AND BRIEFS

------

    R. Campbell Kennedy, traveling passenger agent for the Big Four Railway;
W. H. Allen of the Wisconsin Central, and J.C. Pond of the Pennsylvania
lines, are in the city.

 

I am confident that traveling passenger agents called on ticket agents in
stations all over the country to try to influence them to route passengers
over the traveling agent's home railroad.  Remember, in those days there
were many competing railroad lines on which similar schedules were
maintained, meaning that the ticket agent  could route passengers over a
favored foreign railroad if the passenger did not specify otherwise.

 

The traveling agent probably distributed cigars, advertising trinkets and
probably more than a few pints of Kentucky's finest distilled sprits.  As a
example of an advertising handout, I have a Great Northern cigarette lighter
that was given to me many years ago by an aunt who was a passenger ticket
agent for the PRR at the downtown Washington, DC, ticket office at 14th and
G streets.  I have no doubt that she was given this by a GN traveling
passenger agent.

 

Gordon Hamilton

----- Original Message ----- 

From: NW <mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>  Mailing List 

To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org 

Sent: Monday, July 07, 2008 6:33 AM

Subject: Re: Agents?

 

The Powhatan Arrow carried uniformed Traveling

Passenger Agents.  They were a little better at

p.r. than some conductors.  They assisted passengers

in making connections and made sure they sat

in the correct  reserved seat.

 

Traveling Freight Agents worked for the Trans-

portation Department.  ONE of their assignments was

to police use of N&W hoppers by foreign railroads.

When hoppers became empty, there's a

requirement that they're returned to the owning

road.  These Traveling Freight Agents would 

review the car records on file at off-line stations

to make sure railroads weren't appropriating N&W

hoppers for their own loading.

                                       Harry Bundy 






  _____  


Gas prices getting you down? Search AOL Autos for fuel-efficient used cars
<http://autos.aol.com/used?ncid=aolaut00050000000007> .

No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com 
Version: 8.0.138 / Virus Database: 270.4.5/1537 - Release Date: 7/6/2008
5:26 AM

  _____  


________________________________________
NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org
To change your subscription go to
http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list
Browse the NW-Mailing-List archives at
http://list.nwhs.org/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20080707/f40852a8/attachment-0001.html>