RPO on N&W No. 8

[NW Mailing List]

Good morning,I'll just add a note to this discussion. I grew up in Roanoke, the son and grandson of N&W employees. I had relatives in Rice VA, about 6 miles east of Farmville on the old N&W main. I remember riding No. 8 unaccompanied as a youngster, from Roanoke to Rice on a number of occasions in the mid-50's. The train was under Mr. Murray Via, conductor. My most vivid memory is that the mail clerks would come back to the coach, to socialize with the conductor and trainman. I was also invited (as the only passenger, typically) to join in. It was really special to me because the postal clerks were armed! I think they carried S&W short barrel revolvers. Visions of train robbers.......Anyhow I think the RPO was a small compartment. The coach was frequently a RF&P unit. I would take No.8 on Fridays and return to Roanoke on No.7 on Sundays.I had a great uncle who was a retired engineer on the Norfolk Division. Many of the engineers knew him and they would blow a "whipporwill" sort of sound as they approached his home just east of Rice. It sounded specially good when coming from a J.
JB Farley

-----Original Message-----
From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
To: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Wed, Oct 14, 2020 6:30 am
Subject: Re: RPO on N&W No. 8

Thanks, Frank, for your quick and always thorough response
Glenn
> On 10/14/2020 1:24 AM NW Mailing List via NW-Mailing-List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
>  
> On Tuesday, October 13, 2020, 01:19:42 PM EDT, Glenn Fisher wrote:
> 
> Frank:
> 
> Back in the mid-50s, N&W No. 8 from Roanoke to Norfolk carried a Mail and Baggage Car.  Was there a working RPO on board?
> 
> Glenn
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 
> Hello, Glenn:
> 
> During 1955, Train 8 had a 15-feet apartment RPO according to the attached schedule page.  Please note that this RPO only operated with a clerk between Roanoke and Petersburg.  The apartment RPO may have remained in the train consist between Petersburg and Norfolk without a clerk or the car may have been switched out at Petersburg.  The bold-face train number indicates a RPO and the light-face train number shows that there was no RPO but closed-pouch mail was handled on the train.  "cu" means RPO daily except Sunday, closed pouch on Sunday, and "b" means daily except Sunday.
> 
> Best Autumn wishes,
> 
> Frank Scheer
> f_scheer at yahoo.com
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