| Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railway RSD5 2134 at La Junta, Colorado on August 17, 1965, Kodachrome by Chuck Zeiler. On the date of this photo, number 2134 was the station switcher at La Junta, and has just moved the power to the waiting eastbound Train Number 24, The Grand Canyon, and is about to be cut off. According to the book, "Moving Mail And Express By Rail", by Edward M. DeRouin, the Santa Fe had the US Mail contract between Chicago and Los Angeles. Working Railway Post Office (RPO) cars were required on certain trains between Chicago, Kansas City, La Junta, Albuquerque, and Los Angeles. However, not all trains were required to have a RPO west of La Junta. In this case, the RPO was removed from westbound Train #23, The Grand Canyon. Upon arrival of eastbound Train #24, the switcher removed the power, set it out, switched the RPO onto the head end, and placed the power back on the train (seen here). The Grand Canyon will continue on to Kansas City, where this procedure will be repeated, and a second RPO will be added for the final leg of the trip to Chicago. The mail contract required 60 linear feet of RPO space between La Junta and Kansas City and 90 feet between Kansas City and Chicago. The Santa Fe kept spare RPO's at La Junta and Kansas City (and likely other locations) in the event one was bad ordered or rejected by the Post Office, and the Post Office would levy fines if the contract was not fulfilled. Postal employees could (and did) reject RPO cars if they deemed them to be in an unacceptable condition. The Post Office always collected the fines because they deducted them from the bill the railroad sent to them for the RPO services. |