Automatic post office

I picked up this post card years ago.  It is an advertisement for "Mailomat", an automated means of mailing letters created back in the 1940's.  We could use a modern automated version of this now to replace simplistic mailing functions at the post office.

It notes that it helps to catch earlier planes and "trains"  A remnant of the old Railway Postal Service "RPO" era.  The last RPO run was between Washington DC and New York in 1977.  Some time ago I collected RPO marked postcards.  I also worked years ago with a guy who used to work on an RPO car.  He had some interesting stories, but it was hard work.

I have one RPO mail-catcher on my layout at a small station.

Another interesting photo is this early reinforced concrete gondola car built around 1919.

The concept was to save on the cost of steel during the war years (WW-1).  While I guess they worked OK, I suspect the weight and the poor results in wrecks caused their demise.  I also guess they were difficult to repair properly.

I have essentially completed the platform scale company, and I am working on platform scales for the loading docks.  I will post some photos of that later this week.  Meanwhile I am thinking about what to build next - always a challenge.