Railway Post Office from the Golden Age of Rail

Baltimore & Ohio class H-9 #81 railway post office was built by Pullman in 1913. On exhibit here on a turntable stub track at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, it shows the effects of decades of outdoor storage. The car was purchased by the museum at Auction in Hagerstown, Maryland in 1970. The interior mail handling equipment was found to be in very good condition and has been used in the museum's education programs to show groups like Boy Scouts how mail was sorted while the train was in motion.
B&0 No. 81 is equipped with steam heat lines and a belt driven generator to charge the battery bank which supplied the car with electricity. B & 0 No. 81 has four mail cranes. This allowed the crew to pick up mail on the fly from any side door on the car.
The inside of the car is totally devoted to the sorting and movement of the U.S. mail. At one end is a toilet, water cooler and three lockers for storage of the crew's gear. Rows of electric lights run down the center and sides of the car to allow work at night. In the summer relief from the heat was provided by a row of electric fans suspended from the car roof. Heat came from one large upright radiator at each end of the car and radiators down the car sides. All the windows have bars for security. The end doors have a pivoting bar locking system.

Details:
Railway Post Office Class: H-9
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad No. 81
Steel Construction Builder: Pullman 1913
Length: 60' 9"
Weight: 67 Tons (134, 000 lbs. )