Toward the end of passenger service, the two train pairs still operated by Frisco, Trains 1-2 and 101-102, routinely ran with long strings of baggage/express cars ahead of the two or three rider cars they normally handled. (By contrast, MoPac trains from the same period were generally a single locomotive and two or three coaches). Does anyone have any idea what Frisco was carrying in those head-end cars? Newspapers? Catalogs? Ag equipment parts? It would almost seem that these trains (especially the OKLAHOMAN) could have made a living for themselves as mail trains. Greg Stout
Hi Greg, If I am not mistaken, they were hauling the mail. I think once that the airlines and other specialists [ UPS ] started to compete, the passenger trains lost their mail contracts, and their reason for existing. Tis a pity, I loved those Racehorses!! Dan
When the schedule went from two trains to one (On each line) the amount of mail and express was doubled. In the 60's, the Will Rogers and the Meteor usually both carried a full car of express and a full car of storage (Unsorted) mail for Tulsa and Oklahoma city and likely one mail and/or express car for Springfield. Maybe as many as three "baggage" cars for each city. So the "Oklahoman" would have had twice as many cars of each. Tom
According to my father-in-law Harold Arnold, who was an RPO clerk, right before the mail was taken off the railroad the trains between Monett and St Louis might have a mail/storage car in front of and behind the RPO that was accessible from the RPO. He said that they would work mail from both ends.
A further twist on what was carried in the "baggage" cars: The Post Office Department (Before it became the "Postal Service") and the Railway Express Agency reserved and rented space in the cars from the railroad companies. Sometimes full cars or only part of a car, depending on projected needs. A train like The Meteor might have entire cars of solid express or mail on some nights and have some cars part mail and part express other times. In another accounting period, the shares of the cars might be divided differently between the express company and the Post Office. There would have been an "Express Messenger" performing similar sorting tasks with his cargo as the Railway Mail Clerks did with the mail. The messenger would also handle any actual passenger baggage that may have been checked for the train. The mail clerks might only work mail carried in the railway mail car or might also work mail carried in adjacent "baggage" cars. Solid cars of express or "storage" mail could have also be carried in "baggage" cars. The 1963 era train #9's ("The Meteor") consist would have one car full or part express for Fort Smith, a similar car for Tulsa and another for Oklahoma City as well as an RPO car and cars or parts of cars of mail as needed by the post office. Six or more "baggage" cars might be in the consist (In addition to the railway post office), but not all would be entirely mail or express. Several (Or all) might be a mix of mail and express. Tom
