order of head-end equipment

[NW Mailing List]

Jim

Yes indeed there was an order, very specifically set up by the railroad. The N&W issued a list of the cars, type of use and destination for each train. Some trains had extra coaches or storage mail cars, depending on the day of the week. Obviously, special added cars for groups and such may well have been added without regards to the consist list. 

Head end cars almost always ran at the front, mail afterward, baggage, deadhead or labor cars, the coaches, diner and sleepers. However, you will occasionally see a storage mail car on the rear, which was simply the most expedient way of putting the car on or off. 

I’ve only ever seen one example of N&W consist books:

https://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=80715

This is a 1954 issue, I don’t know how it was handled earlier, unless it was by bulletin, or they just “knew.”

Now if you really want to see how complex passenger service can be on a larger road, go to this page, Rob’s PRR pages, Rob has done a great job making a ton of PRR stuff available.

http://prr.railfan.net/passenger/

And download the 1954 Inter-regional list for the PRR trains. It is 80 pages of amazing detail, cars coming from other trains, express cars that ran certain days for newspaper or catalog shipments, etc., etc. 

It can be really educational as to how the big guys did it. I laid out books on the PRR and the SP subject years ago that are still available on secondary markets. If you have an interest in the subject, I highly recommend both. N&W really did not have the complexity of this, obviously, but it truly shows the level of detail it once took.

Best
Ken Miller

> On Oct 24, 2023, at 4:57 PM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
> Was there a standard order for head end cars on N&W (maybe other RRs as well)?  From photo evidence, it would appear that first behind the tender would be mail (what about storage mail), followed by bag/mail, followed by baggage, followed by combines.  Was this line-up mandated?  Were there reasons for this order?  I wouldn't want to be caught running a model passenger consist with equipment in the wrong order ;^)
> Jim Cochran
> 
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