Nostalgia & History > Loading baggage/mail

One of my favorite passenger train activities in the station was baggage wagons being loaded or unloaded.

(1) Nov 1976
Three full wagons at Denver Union Station being loaded (or unloaded) on a car for the San Francisco Zephyr.
Looks like the old days with baggage, mail and express.

(2) April 1977
Not as much as in Denver but a nice load going on the Southern Crescent at New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal.
Looks like one mail bag on the left ?

Gary

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/19/24 04:34 by gcm.

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Thanks, sometimes overlooked mail loading.  Nice to catch some after most mail had been diverted.

Bob

Very interesting series!

Larry

I never realized until Amtrak started to sell off the carts as surplus that they are referred to as 'floats', at least by Amtrak.

Some of them look old enough to have handled Lincoln's casket, too.

I never heard baggage wagons or REA wagons called floats.  Perhaps flats just because some wagons had sides or barricades along the edges while others were just flat.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/19/24 15:26 by Hou74-76.

Southern Railway also referred to baggage wagons as "floats".  Many of them were made at their Charlotte Roadway Shop in Charlotte NC.