amtrak heritage baggage cars former usps cars?

[yarrow]

i've noticed several amtrak heritage baggage cars that have "united states post office" or something like that on the upper right. are these old railway postal cars?

 

[Blackwolf]

Like this?

 

[yarrow]

Like this?

yup, like that. what is the history of these cars?

 

[battalion51]

At one point in time when there was the big mail contract Amtrak had "designated" some of the 1700 series just for mail. They had special tie downs to keep the mail floats from shifting around that the regular 1700 and other Heritage Baggage cars didn't have. Like all things, this intention didn't last long, and cars were used interchangeably as needed.

 

[jphjaxfl]

The Railway Post Office cars were unique and built just for that purpose. As far as I know, Amtrak didn't buy any RPOs because I believe all were discontinued prior to Amtrak. One of the neat things about an RPO was that there was an outgoing mail slot in each car. If you put a letter in that slot, it would be post marked from that car. The RPO line I am most familiar with was the Chicago, Logansport and Louisville which ran on PRR #94 and #95. I worked at the Jeffersonville, IN post office when we still dispatched and received mail from that RPO.