Combination Railway Post Office Cars (was "Abingdon Branch mixed trains cars question ")

[NW Modeling List]

 Bill Demarest said: "The discussion of the availability of a baggage/Railway P.O. car caught my attention. I recently acquired this International Hobby Corp. N&W Railway Post Office car, allegedly from the 1930s, on eBay. Not at all sure about vintage. Trucks need replacement (upgrade) but otherwise an interesting addition. Length appears more typical of the long-distance passenger cars, such as were used on the N&W?s named trans/routes. Does anyone know whether the cars previously used on the Powhatan or other routes were pressed into combine service towards the end of their service lives (late ?50s?)? Absent a more pedestrian version, and with a bit of aging/weathering, I'm planning to use this one for the for mixed combine train, the third planned regular train on the layout, unless the consensus is to add it to the high-speed passenger train with similar passenger cars."

You included two photos of a 85-foot Railway Post Office car that is painted and stenciled for the N&W.  Unfortunately, this is an example of a car style not used on the N&W.  The model company used a body style and painted it for other roads even though that prototype was not used by those carriers.  This particular style was a 60-feet Railway Post Office apartment and an additional 25 feet that could be used for storage mail or for Railway Express or baggage.  The N&W only had 60 feet RPO cars, mostly heavyweights.

Your other question was whether equipment used on main line trains between Norfolk and Columbus, Cincinnati, or Bristol was diverted to branch lines during the 1950s.  Passenger services was generally downgraded or discontinued on the branch lines during that era, so equipment operated on main line trains mostly stayed in service along the principal N&W routes.  When that equipment was excessed, much of it was sold to other railroads.  Older equipment was white-lined and converted to Maintenance of Way service or scrapped.

Good luck modeling,

Frank Scheer
f_scheer at yahoo.com