Baggage Wagons

[NW Mailing List]

Abe:

i don't know a definitive answer to your question. However, I can state for a fact that at least a number of standard baggage wagons were made by the Mercury Co., as one of mine still has its Mercury builder's plate. There are specialty wagons for certain purposes that were probably made by the carpenter shop at East End. I know one of mine was converted by the Shops as a "casket wagon" for handling military and other caskets, when so many were being shipped by rail, at the end of World War II, the Korean War and to a lesser extent, Vietnam.

In response to the comment about the REA wagons, I suspect that the N&W owned its wagons, all marked with "Norfolk and Western" and the REA owned its own wagons, marked with "Railway Express Agency" One of my wagons is an REA, with a large serial number stamped into the rear axle support wood, just like a property number.

The later REA wagons tended to be taller, about 8-12 inches than the standard wagon, I assume that was for easier access to load and unload from the later REA cars. However, I never have seen any kind of measurements, or standards to reflect this.

I would suspect that in the N&W's case, and probably with any railroad with a large enough shop facility, they maintained the wagons for REA (and invoiced REA for that work) as a standard practice.

Ken Miller

On Nov 28, 2012, at 7:02 PM, NW Mailing List wrote:


> Anyone know who was resposible for building and maintaining the large four-wheel baggage wagons used around stations?  Most of them seem to have been marked with a Railway Express sign, but I'm just wondering if the railroad didn't build, own and maintain them.  Anyone know if they were built in Roanoke Shops?

> 

> -- abram burnett

>  

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