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Another great shot from the Coronado Sub. Thanks for providing the consist car numbers. A nice friendly wave from the engineman on Extra 5518. A great way to spend lunchtime!
Thanks for your comment Paul. Fort McMurray became a real train goldmine for a short while with this Monday at lunch passenger train and the twice weekly Muskeg Mixed. In a few short years they were gone.
Probably not picking up mail today though. The small doorway on the leading end of the former Mail and Express Car was used for picking up mail bags on the fly. The brackets on each side of the doorway were the hinge points for the “catcher mechanism” which was raised vertically by an employee standing inside the open doorway to “catch” the mail bag from the catch post located trackside. This type of car also served a a Railway Post Office (RPO) performing mail sorting and delivery.
still sporting the brackets for the “which would have also served as Railway Post Offices (RPO)
All four cars have been preserved, the first two at the Alberta Railway Museum, the old heavyweight coach is with the Bytown Railway Society, and and the last is owned by the Rocky Mountain Railway Society. By this time the former NAR RPOs had been gutted and turned into full baggage cars.
With baggage 7857 (not in this group of cars, used exclusively on the Muskeg mixed) being converted to what I termed a bagboose (a conversion done by CN)
http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=46600
A very creative and functional repurposing.