Northern Paciric Railway Post Office/Baggage Car No. 1447

RPO Car No. 1447 was built for the Northern Pacific in 1914. It consists of a fully equipped 30-foot mail compartment and a 40-foot baggage section. There are large side doors in each section to facilitate loading and unloading. However, the only way to get from the mail section to the baggage section and back when the train was moving was through a trap door under the counter. Because the postal workers were kept very busy, it probably wasn’t used very often. Most of the letters at that time were carried by train, instead of by truck or air as they are today. The worker would stand at the counter canceling stamps, using the rubber pads on the counter to hold the letters. Next, he would place the mail in the proper pigeonhole for its destination. The pigeonholes were labeled with the names of the towns that the train traveled through. When they were full, the postal worker would put the letters into canvas bags which, when full, were tied at the top and put in the back until delivery. The cubicles above the canvas bags were probably used for things like bulk mail and newspapers. This mail would be tossed over the top of the doors. When they were full, a canvas bag was hung on hooks underneath, and the door was slid open. This allowed everything to slide out, due to the slanted bottom. Wooden sorting tables placed in front of the canvas mailbags were also used when separating the mail.

On the side door of the mail section, there is a large black hook. This is for picking up mail “on the fly.” If there were no passengers to pick up, but the mail still needed to be picked up, the stationmaster would hook a canvas mailbag to a tall pole with side arms. As the train went by, the worker in the RPO pulled the hook to a horizontal position and caught the mailbag, lowering it into the car. Delivering mail from a moving car was a bit easier. The postal worker would set the mailbag on the floor, and when the train passed the station, he opened the gate and kicked the bag onto the station platform. The stationmaster then came out to retrieve it.

The baggage compartment has been converted into a railway historical library and archive, which is open for research by special arrangement. RPO cars were once quite common in the railroad industry, but now are extremely rare. The car was donated to the Museum by the Burlington Northern, and restored by the Lake Superior Transportation Club.