Southern FP7A 6133 leads a passenger train into the station at the North Carolina Transportation Museum during the museum’s Rail Days event on June 12, 2010.
The first car in the train is an RPO (Railway Post Office) car, a common sight in the time when trains carried a large share of mail traffic that would be hand-sorted enroute. As the train approaches the station, a crewmember in the RPO demonstrates how mail bags were exchanged while the train was in motion. A loaded bag would be suspended from the station’s mail hook next to the tracks, and a postal worker riding in the RPO would extend a hook from the side of the car to pluck the bag off the hook and swing it into the car. Simultaneously, an empty mail bag would be kicked out of the RPO to the platform and used to collect another load of mail.
#train #trainspotting #railfanning #railroad #museum #northcarolina #travel #shorts
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