RPO Placement in Train

[Statkowski]

Section 2109.7 of the Railway Mail Service Rules & Regulations (1938) states:

Mail cars, whether of steel, steel underframe, or wooden construction, which have the letter cases in the end shall not be operated with the letter end next to the engine when it is practicable to turn the cars so as to run the storage end forward.

This, I suppose, covers 60-foot RPO cars, but what about Apartment cars with 15-foot or 30-foot RPO sections? Baggage/RPO cars, for example? Working storage mail cars in front of or behind the RPO (as opposed to sealed storage mail cars)? Other express (REA) cars?

I believe sealed cars can be placed ahead of the RPO car, but does anyone know of any specific rules or regulations addressing the actual location of the RPO car/apartment within a train?

[Desertdweller]

I believe the placement of RPO cars is determined by the contract with the post office department. Obviously, passage through the RPO section of the car was not allowed by persons not postal employees.

So if the train had a working RPO and a working baggage section in the same car, the baggage section would have to be next to the first passenger car if baggage men were to have access to the train. I have seen many photos of the RPO car being first behind the locomotive with the RPO part leading (but these may have predated 1938).

A train may also carry sealed storage mail cars. These could be express boxcars or baggage cars, lettered for postal service.

Some trains actually carried mail cars on the rear end, behind the passenger cars. This was so they could be picked up/set out with a minimum of switching moves. Colorado and Southern #7&#8 (Dallas-Denver mail trains) were examples of this.

My advice, if you are modeling a specific train, would be to find some photos of the train and follow the example.

Les