Mail Call! Railway Post Office, commonly abbreviated as RPO has rolled in!


Does anybody know what the Navy's truck & rail van (TARVAN) containers used to carry loaded first and second stages of submarine-launched fleet ballistic missiles from Utah to the East coast, in the early 1970's, looked like? I worked for an aerospace company that handled the engineering of the misisle motors, and we had reports of some incidents of people taking shots at the TARVANS with some motors in them, but, fortunately, there were no incidents resulting from the shots, but I never saw or had any details of the TARVANS on flatcars. Nor, can I find any reference to them on the internet.
 
How many of those passenger cars do you have?
Somewhere between 307 (last good count) and 500 (all the new ones I've purchased in the last 10 years). So that is between 2000 and 4000 axles.

Edit - well I take that back all those aren't Walthers. At least 75 are the BLI California Zephyr, Wabash, and the SP Daylight cars.
Locomotives-Overhead-small.JPG
 
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I just picked up 4 more Athearn passengers cars to bring my ATSF passengers train 10 car
1 RPO
3 domes
3 coaches
2sleeper
1 Observation car.

I'd like to find 2 sleepers and 2 coaches and atleast 2 baggage cars to finish this train. I have a F7 AB set of Blue Box Super powers to pull that set would mind a another A unit.
Does Athearn make a diner for the set? Less the domes that would make a pretty good SanFrancisco Chief or Texas Chief.

Edit. Yes, they do!
Athearn Streamlined Diner.jpg
 
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This past Sunday there was a Lehigh Valley Railroad meet near Easton, Pennsylvania. While not a large show, it draws a lot of older gentlemen who have been in the hobby for a long time and have lived through, and witnessed some of the last years of the so called steam to diesel transition years. These guys and the generation who grew up in the 1960s and 70s i find very interesting to chat with. The materials they bring are especially noteworthy if you're into old materials. I snagged this package with plans for Philadelphia and Reading (aka Reading Railroad) of many of their major steam locomotives:
IMG_20241006_205726841.jpg
IMG_20241006_205612420_HDR.jpg
IMG_20241006_205625293_HDR.jpg

There are probably 20 different classes of steam, including the very elusive N1 mallet (on top) and the price was a steal. Below is a plan for their one of a kind L6-sa, the only "ten wheeler" with cab in the back on the railroad:
IMG_20241006_210037873~2.jpg

Next what was probably the largest and heaviest "American" ever built:
IMG_20241006_210136959~2.jpg

And ofcourse their only fully streamlined class:
IMG_20241006_205920149~3.jpg

Rebuilt especially for their "Crusader" trains between Philly and Jersey City.
 



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