Railway Post Office cars (RPO cars) were genuine post offices on wheels. U.S. Postal Department mail clerks (i.e., federal employees) staffed such cars and sorted mail enroute. For security of the mail, no one other than USPD employees could enter such a car, not even the railroad's crew or staff.  Note the mechanism on the left door.  This was used to grab mailbags while the train was running.  RPO cars picked up first-class letter pouches dispatched by thousands of small-town post offices 'on the fly.' At the train station platform, a postal worker put the canvas pouch up on a special trackside pole. As the RPO car approached, a clerk aboard swung outward a special hook in the doorway of the RPO that snared the pouch. At the same time, an RPO clerk threw out onto the platform a letter pouch with mail destined for that town.

The Combine was used to haul luggage and packages in one area, passengers in the other end of the car.

In the running order of the cars, this passenger care would be second class.  Second class passengers and first class passengers were usually divided by the Diner.   One of these cars will be at the rear of the train as a first class car.

Recently passenger figures were added to the passenger car as well as the two diner cars and one of the Pullmans.

The Dining car was usually in the middle of the train.  As stated above, this was used as the dividing line between the two classes.  There are two of these cars running back to back in this train.

Power is supplied with the use of 2 - AAA NiMH batteries concealed on the undercarriage between the frame.  I'm still not sure how long these will power the eight LED's in each car, but so far I've run them over three hours and the lights are doing fine.

The Pullman is also known as the sleeper car.  It was set up with small rooms for sleeping.  First class all the way.  There are two of these cars running back to back on this train.

Some of the detail of the Pullman car shown here is the lavatory.

With the addition of the diaphragms between the cars, the look is complete.

Six of these cars make up the train for the Accucraft Shay.  With the real wood load, and the addition of metal wheels, these cars do have some weight behind them.  The Shay is the perfect engine to pull the heavy load.  In scale, these logs would be about 8' diameter.  The chain used to secure the logs are from a Coo Coo clock!

The latest addition to the logging train is the Muskegon River Logging Co. Caboose No. 207.  This was acquired in Diamondhead 2004 by one of my friends, Dave Martin.  When I saw it, I knew that I had to own it.  The Muskegon River starts about one mile from my cottage on Houghton Lake.  There really was a railway here in Michigan named "The Lake George and Muskegon River Railroad!  Founded in 1877 and began operations in Clair County, Mi.  Also, another railroad named the Muskegon River and Rose Lake Railway was founded in 1878.  This later railway was 3' gauge and had a total length of 7.5 miles.  The track was abandoned three years later in 1881. 

The interior is completely decorated.  Benches, pot belly stove, and even posters on the walls.  Here is a view which shows part of the stove and a poster on the far wall.

The caboose is equipped with interior and exterior lighting.

This is a Bachman car the I have removed the lettering and added metal wheels.  Of the three cars in this set, one is a Combine, and two are Passenger Cars.  Interior lighting has been changed by replacing the lights with 6 volt bulbs which are powered by a gel cell battery.

This is a Lionel car with metal wheels added.  The original markings were removed and the car was painted black.  There are six of these cars in the set, and they are usually pulled with the cars shown below.

Also Lionel cars, these have had the metal wheels added also.  Original markings have been removed and the cars painted black.  There are seven of these cars in the set and they usually are pulled with the Low Sided Gondola shown above.

A Lionel "Chessie" caboose until recently.   I removed the paint and decals from the manufacture and added "Michigan Small Scale Live Steamers" to the car.  Our group will use this car for public events in the future.  I will also use this with the Hudson pulling the two different Lionel cars above.

When the first steam engines were produced for passenger service, the most logical piece of equipment to use at the time was a stage coach.  These coaches were adapted by adding a sprung undercarriage and wheels to ride on the rails.  Some of these coaches had benches and a fabric canopy added to the top for open air seating.  The problem with this was that the passengers would commonly get burned by the hot ashes and much smoke coming from the engine!  (See "Projects" link for information on assembly of this car)

I have a total of three of these cars to run behind the Ruby.

I also have three of these to make up the consist of six cars the engine can pull.