At first glance, Great Northern 480 is a slightly odd baggage car. It has a vestibule and single coach window at one end! In fact, 480 is one of fourteen old Pullman sleepers the Great Northern rebuilt into unique "rider-storage mail" cars. Normally mail was handled at the front of the train, but on the Fast Mail and Western Star trains, it was necessary to handle some at the rear also. The vestibule and small passenger area accomodated the rear flagman, whose duty was to protect the rear of the train.
Perhaps the best definition of a "rider-storage mail car" is this quote from page 21 of the "Great Northern Pictorial - Vol. 4" by John F. Strauss Jr.:
The unique rider-storage mail car that began to appear during the late 1930's as the last car assigned to the consists of trains #27 and #28 was one of a 11-car set on the Railway's roster. They were rebuilt by the car shops with an enclosed rear-end compartment and vestibule, designed for the FAST MAIL's rear brakeman (flagman), but which retained considerable space for storage mail and express shipments. Having one of these cars on the rear of trains #27 and #28 permitted the rearrangement of each consist so that the coaches could be placed in a more centralized location, and locked and sealed storage mail and express cars, which were not worked en route, could follow the coaches. This rearrangement of the FAST MAIL's consists permitted station personnel to load and unload the Railway Post Office and the working storage mail car while passengers detrained and/or entrained at the same time, particularly at those stations with short platforms. In addition to being on the FAST MAIL, these rider-storage mail cars were assigned to the Williston Local and appeared on the WINNIPEG LIMITED when their consists had several loaded, locked and sealed storage mail and express cars coupled to the rear of the last passenger-carrying car, particularly during the Christmas Season mail and express rush.
In 1948, needing to replace well-worn old wooden baggage cars, the Great Northern purchased fifteen tourist sleeper cars from Pullman. This was done under AFE (Authority For Expenditure) number 76178 of 12/1/48. They paid $1,555 each. Twelve of the fifteen were rebuilt by the St. Cloud shops into baggage cars 475 to 486. The work took from October to December of 1948, cost an estimated $6,442 per car, and was done under AFE 76179.
Starting in 1954, the Great Northern began combining the Fast Mail and Western Star between Spokane and Seattle. This created trains over twenty cars long, with so many mail cars that if they were all handled at the head end, the passengers would have to get off on the ballast and walk to the depot platform. Thus the non-working mail cars were placed at the rear, followed by an empty coach for the rear flagman. The extra coach was judged inefficient, so sometime between 1954 and 1956 a rear office was added to cars 475-486. The flagman's accomodations included a coach seat and table, clothes locker, restroom, water cooler, and a Caban coal (later oil) stove. A portable red oscilating Mars light was bolted to the rear door, right in the center, creating a distinctive spotting feature.
AFE 88227 of July 2, 1956 authorize upgrading the twelve cars' friction journals to Timken roller bearings. This was completed between September 1956 and January 1957, at $510.11 per car.
Photographs of 480 show it wore both the GN "Empire Builder" Omaha orange and Pullman green, and the BN "Hocky Stick" Cascade green with white.
With the cessation of BN passenger service on April 30, 1971, the rider-storage mail cars were stored. For most of the seventies, they saw use in work train service. Most were scrapped in the eighties, although 473 (a later addition,) 480, 485, and 486 went to museums, 481 was sold to a private individual, and 483 & 484 went to industries. MTM's 480 was actually the first to leave the roster, being donated in February 1979.
480 served MTM for a while as steam locomotive NP 328's tool car. Deterioration ended that, and it currently serves as a display and storage car at the Jackson Street Roundhouse Museum.
Though heavyweight, 480 is considered part of MTM's GN streamlined passenger train set.
To learn more about movement of mail by rail, visit the Post Office's excellent page on the subject.
Here is the (large)GN equipment book page for 476-483.
Sources:
