billbox

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 This was a billbox.  When I was working the Tug River Pool between Williamson and Bluefield (1970's-80's) and picked up west loads out of the middle track this is where the waybills were placed. 
 
 Mailbox' s were  commonly used at mine location to place the waybills for loads to be pulled. At that time a waybill was created for each individual loaded car to be moved. The billbox's were placed at different locations at the mine site usually at either the tipple or outlet track.  And a load was not to be pulled with out a waybill created with corresponding number of the car to be pulled. 
 
Although there were a couple of locations where a mailbox or a homemade wooden box was used trackside for waybill placement, these were few and far between.
It was more common on the  Pocahontas Division, for loads being set off or picked up, to place waybills in the lineside phone box if a billbox was not provided.  No billbox was located at the eastend of this location so the lineside phonebox was used to place the bills for picking up east loads. The use of a lineside phonebox made sense as this phone could put a conductor in direct contact with the dispatcher or agent-operator.
 
The box in the photo has been there for quite sometime as evident by its condition.  And the mailbox, as noted, could be used to leave a copy of the "fanfold bill" (A single page with each car listed with origin and destination) or a list of cars placed in the middle track or siding because conductor's are still required to have a list and location of cars in there train before leaving the  location of the pickup.
 
-Jeff Hensley.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Only problem with the "Bill Box" theory is that trains haven't run with Waybills for 25 years. EDI (electronic data interchange) killed Waybills several decades ago. The only "paperwork" required for trains today is documentation for cars with HazMat placards and, if HazMat is being handled, a train consist or other "train placement document." Conductors don't even write up Wheel Reports anymore. 

The mail box may be used for the relaying Air Brake Test slips. (A block of cars, once charged and given an Initial Terminal Brake Test, can be picked up and placed in another train without another Initial Terminal Test, under certain circumstances.) In the absence of an enclosure like this, most crews just wrap that document in a plastic sandwich bag and leave it in the knuckle. (BTW, Initial Terminal Air Brake Tests are now called Class I Brake Tests, subsequent to the revision of the Air Brake Regulation about a dozen years ago... but old terminology dies hard.) 

The other possibility is that some industry (mine?) leaves switching orders for the crew in the mail box, but I doubt that such would be placed between live tracks. 

 		 	   		  
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