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Topic: Railway Mail Service

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	Railfanning.org: Railroad History
		The effect of the fast mails on the overall mail distribution system was to reduce the time in transit and promote efficiency of service, because the fast mail made connections at all important junctions serviced by the regular trains from throughout the country.
		For the Railway Mail Service, the opening years of the 20th century were marked by continuing safety problems associated with the use of wooden railway postal cars, unsanitary working conditions in many of those cars, and the requirement on many occasions for clerks to work overtime beyond an eight-hour day without compensation.
		The Railway Mail Service had all of these attributes, combined with dedicated people, with a tremendous work ethic and esprit de corps that gave America a mail service that was the envy of the world.
	railfanning.org /history/fastmail.htm (4497 words)

	mailByRail (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-09-10)
		The idea proved to be exceptionally successful, and as the postal service decentralized its operations, it concentrated on sorting much of the growing volume of mail while it was being carried on the nation's rail lines.
		Sorting mail on moving trains was one of the greatest innovations introduced by the postal service.
		Mail previously untouched in bags on train floors was processed as the train sped toward its destination.
	www.si.edu /harcourt/npm/mail/mailbyrail.html (311 words)

	Railway Mail Service - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		The United States Postal Service's Railway Mail Service was a significant mail transportation service in the US during the time period from the mid-19th century until the mid-20th century.
		Mail had been carried in locked pouches aboard trains prior to Armstrong's involvement with the system, but there had been no organized system of sorting mail en route, to have mail prepared for delivery when the mail pouches reached their destination city.
		The Railway Mail Service reached its peak in the 1920s, then began a gradual decline with the discontinuance of RPO service on branchlines and secondary routes.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Railway_Mail_Service (797 words)

	Mail Post Office
		Soon, however, the railroad began to carry mail, first by arrangement with the regular mail contractors; and within two or three years the contractors were asking the Government to agree to their having the mail transported by the railroad.
		As the railways grew, they gradually displaced the horse as a means of mail conveyance, and there was much dispute between the Department and certain railroad companies as to what should be fair compensation for their services.
		The whole daily mails of the United States could be carried by the inland route from Boston to New Orleans, by the established expresses, at their regular rates on parcels, for a little over $3,000; while the whole daily expense of mail transportation is $6,594.
	www.catskillarchive.com /rrextra/mails.Html (3364 words)

	Lake Winnipesaukee Historical Society
		Railway mail clerks, in cooperation with the pilot, quickly sort the first class mail and 15 minutes later the plane had started on its daily route.
		At 7:20 o‘clock the plane is again docked at the mail plane landing near the station at the Weirs and the mail it has collected is rushed to the post office, where it is stamped and placed on the 8:05 train for Boston.
		Parcel post packages and other pieces of mail not in the first class are carried to the various points on the lake by the United States mail boat Uncle Sam, but delivery is made several hours later than the plane delivers mail.
	www.lwhs.us /win-bobfogginterview.htm (1207 words)

	History of the United States Postal Service 1775-1993
		As mail delivery evolved from foot to horseback, stagecoach, steamboat, railroad, automobile, and airplane, with intermediate and overlapping use of balloons, helicopters, and pneumatic tubes, mail contracts ensured the income necessary to build the great highways, rail lines, and airways that eventually spanned the continent.
		When railway mail service began, mostly letter mail was sorted on the cars, which were not equipped to distribute other kinds of mail.
		The customer had to take a letter to the post office to mail it, and the addressee had to pick up the letter at the post office, unless he or she lived in one of about 40 big cities where a carrier would deliver it to the home address for an extra penny or two.
	www.usps.com /history/his2.htm (2900 words)

	Recollections of an RPO clerk at the Sacramento Post Office
		In 1837, mail was being carried on 974 of the 1497 miles of railroad track in the U.S., almost all of it in the East.
		Railway postal workers were issued snub-nosed.38 caliber revolvers, though many never bothered to practice with these notoriously inaccurate "peashooters." During the Depression, and at other times when extremely valuable items were being carried, clerks were issued submachine guns.
		In 1955 Railway Mail Service to Sacramento was discontinued.
	www.chinet.com /html/transportation/rpo.html (1071 words)

	Mail Catcher -- an iron rod, or other contrivance, attached to a railroad car for catching a mail bag while the train ...
		However, with the aid of mail cranes such as we see in the picture, it is possible for even the smallest communities situated along the railroad to have adequate mail service at all times.
		A mail messenger employed by the railroad or by the local post office or some other authorized person, attaches the mail bag to the crane a short time before the train is due.
		As the train nears the station, a clerk in the mail car adjusts one of these catcher arms so that when it passes the crane it catches the waiting mail bag where it is tied in the center.
	www.vaiden.net /vaiden_train_memories.html (882 words)

	Mail Delivery
		Government mail delivery in Chicago began in 1831 with the appointment of a fur trader as the first postmaster.
		Chicagoans figured prominently in the transfer of mail sorting from distribution centers to moving railroad cars, an innovation known as “railway mail.” In 1864, Chicago postal administrator George B. Armstrong established a railway mail train on the route between Chicago and Clinton, Iowa.
		Yet Armstrong got the credit and was soon appointed the first superintendent of the Railway Mail Service, a key element in the late-nineteenth-century communications infrastructure.
	www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org /pages/999.html (938 words)

	Wikinfo \| Railroad (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-09-10)
		Like other forms of public transport, many railways are having to make considerable investment in order to meet new requirements for security in the face of recent terrorism incidents.
		In 1806 a horse-drawn railway was built between Swansea and Mumbles.
		Railways soon spread throughout Britain and through the world, and became the dominant means of land transport for nearly a century, until the invention of aircraft and automobiles, which prompted a gradual decline in railways.
	www.wikinfo.org /wiki.php?title=railway (1674 words)

	National Postal Museum
		Railway mail clerks considered the dog a good luck charm.
		The Railway mail clerks adopted Owney as their unofficial mascot, marking his travels by placing medals and tags on his collar.
		Mail clerks raised funds to have Owney preserved, and he was given to the Post Office Department's headquarters in Washington, D.C. In 1911, the department transferred Owney to the Smithsonian Institution, where he has remained ever since.
	www.postalmuseum.si.edu /exhibits/2c1f_owney.html (384 words)

	dangers (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-09-10)
		When John K. Guiles, who robbed the mail train at Salt Lake City, Utah, was foiled when half of the theatrical mustache he was wearing as a disguise fell off.
		When the Salt Lake City mail train was stopped en-route, the clerks on duty fired a hail of bullets and drove off the prospective thieves.
		Railway companies considered the lives of their passengers to be of the most importance, and so commonly placed mail trains directly behind the engine--the spot where, in most accidents, the greatest damage would occur.
	www.si.edu /harcourt/npm/mail/dangers.html (276 words)

	Prologue - The Fast Mail: A Typical Day as Train No. 8 Speeds Eastward (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-09-10)
		A pair of Santa Fe employees, one mail piler and his helper, rode the storage cars, and in route took in additional sacks and pouches, which were filled by the RPO clerks as the train rolled along.
		Sacks and pouches of mail that were taken into the RPO car at Los Angeles and other stops, or by mail catcher at non-stop points, were opened by the clerks, who sorted the contents into other sacks and pouches for varying destinations.
		Of the remaining five clerks, one handled mail for Illinois, another distributed mail for Colorado and New Mexico, another was in charge of mail for California and Arizona, another worked Oklahoma mail, and the eleventh clerk handled Texas.
	www.archives.gov /publications/prologue/2005/fall/fast-mail-side.html (769 words)

	Head End: Railway Express and Railway Post Office
		Railway Post Office is a group focused on the transportation of mail on trains throughout North America, particularly in the 1860-1977 period when mail was sorted on board the trains.
		With the dark landscape rushing by a-mile-a-minute, Railway Postal Clerk Charlie Jackson slides open the door of his RPO and peers through the cinder guard, a small windshield attached to the side of the car he is riding.
		The Railway Mail Service Library (RMSL) is an archival collection of primary and secondary sources pertaining to en route distribution history.
	www.lakemirabel.com /Railroad/HeadEnd.html (2468 words)

	Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska - Douglas Co. - Omaha - Section 7
		Ball, was transferred from service in Virginia, Capt. George Bailey was a citizen of Omaha, S. Reynolds of Fremont, and A. Noteware of Binghamton, N. These men were route agents merely, not opening the packages received and distributing their contents but working only local mail and transferring packages of mail unbroken.
		Of the nine clerks who handle the mail on this route not one is an addition to the service as all were taken from the main line route under the ruling of the department which allowed the new route on the stipulation that it called for no new force.
		Besides its Union Pacific service, the Sixth Division of the Railway Mail Service which has headquarters at Omaha, embraces all of Nebraska, Eastern Colorado, the Black Hills of Western Dakota and the Utah Northern Railway, and sees in all constantly increasing demands, which it is hard work to keep pace with.
	www.kancoll.org /books/andreas_ne/douglas/douglas-p12.html (3771 words)

	California State Railroad Museum Foundation - Great Northern Railway Post Office Car No. 42
		A primary function of the railroads in the era prior to the wide use of the airplane was the transportation of the United States mail.
		Special railway post office cars were constructed to the exact specifications of the Post Office, and contained facilities which allowed for the collection and handling of mailed materials.
		The once-ever present station mail crane no longer holds the mail bag to be snatched up by the speeding trains and post office workers no longer sort letters in swaying cars filled with canvas bags and wooden pigeon holes.
	www.csrmf.org /doc.asp?id=186 (429 words)

	deseretnews.com \| Postal Service mascot Owney travels to Utah
		MURRAY — A nearly 120-year-old, legendary Postal Service dog mascot made his way to McMillan Elementary, where he picked up an Olympic pin, participated in a reading party and bounced around in a "bike rodeo" as part of his national tour.
		Railway mail clerks considered Owney a good luck charm, as no train Owney rode ever wrecked (though wrecks were a common occurrence back then,) the Web site states.
		Mail clerks raised funds to preserve the body of their mascot.
	deseretnews.com /dn/view/0,1249,635201625,00.html (594 words)

	Exeter, Hampton & Amesbury Street Railway Post Office (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-09-10)
		At first, under the name of the EXETER STREET RAILWAY, using Car #12 (later renumbered #2 in 1902 and used as a line car until 1926), and then in 1900, a new mail car was purchased from the Newburyport Car Company.
		The mail room is entered from the vestibule through a massive door and is equipped with ample pouch racks of steel, work bench and sorting compartments.
		Cummings continues, "Later, the car was re-lettered "UNITED STATES MAIL AND EXPRESS" and after the R.P.O. (Railway Post Office) service was discontinued in 1910, No. 18 was used for a time as a freight car and then as a general utility and salt car.
	www.hampton.lib.nh.us /hampton/history/holman/mailcar.htm (460 words)

	No. 1832: Celebrating "Progress"
		It's about railway mail service and it is a pure paean to progress.
		The new railroads had been delivering mail for fifty years, but by the end of the Civil War the system was still casual and haphazard.
		Commercial railways were, by the late nineteenth century, the primary mode of cross-country travel, and they'd become very reliable.
	www.uh.edu /engines/epi1832.htm (513 words)

	Alphabetilately: R is for RPO
		Many aspects of the RMS (Railway mail Service) and RPO's fascinate me. For example, it was critical to the success of the system that trains not have to stop to drop off and collect mail bags en route.
		In skyhooking, a plane would hook outgoing mail that was hanging on a rope suspended between two posts using a grappling hook on the airplane’s tail.
		Mail could be deposited through slots in the sides of special postal streetcars, and was postmarked, sorted, and dropped off as the vehicle travelled its route.
	alphabetilately.com /R3.html (1747 words)

	Iowa Old Press
		The clerk on the one man run simply "states" his mail-that is, makes it up in packages by states, with a printed label on the outside of the package indicating its contents.
		A man staying in the service for any length of time is practically unfitted for any other kind of work as there is no business yet discovered where he can put his knowledge to practical use.
		There is a great deal of what outsiders consider "red tape" connected with this branch of the service, but the clerks themselves have a great deal of respect for this red tape, as they get used to the demands of the service.
	www.iowaoldpress.com /IA/Chickasaw/1900/DEC.html (2090 words)

	The Halifax disaster, seen from a railway post office \| csmonitor.com
		A railroad mail car actually was a rolling post office with its own cancellation stamp and was designated by its terminal stations.
		Dad's routine was to board his mail car at North Station in Boston and start work by setting up his letter-sorting case, laying out his few tools, and greeting the other "boys" as they arrived.
		Mail cars didn't have observation windows, but clerks could tell where they were by the sound of the wheels on the track.
	www.csmonitor.com /2002/1220/p14s02-hfjg.htm (919 words)

	National Postal Museum
		Tempted by the small fortunes carried on mail cars in registered mail and other pouches, thieves tried to make quick fortunes robbing trains.
		By the 1930s, a significant decline in railroad passenger traffic had caused a subsequent decline in the use of railway trains.
		To fill the void, the postal service transferred some en route distribution from trains to highway buses.
	www.postalmuseum.si.edu /exhibits/2c1_railwaymail.html (388 words)

	Railway mail service library - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		The Railway Mail Service (RMS) Library is major collection of materials pertaining to en route distribution history.
		Over a two-year period, the collection was moved from Florida to Virginia and renamed the "Railway Mail Service Library." Since 1982, several major additions have been made to the collection.
		Built in 1913 and in service on the Norfolk and Western Railway for more than four decades, it was used for the town post office during the 1970s.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Railway_mail_service_library (619 words)

	Alphabetilately: R is for RPO
		From the 1860's until the 1950's, most inter-city mail in the US moved by trains, and much of it was processed by hand, en route, in special RPO cars - the mail was not only transported by train, it was postmarked and sorted there as well.
		Processing mail en route evolved soon after, and by the 1840's the TPO's were well established in a form that continues in the UK to the present, though even there, their days are numbered.
		Most mail carried on trains in the pre-RPO era was cancelled, sorted and bagged before it was put on board, and bore no special markings to indicate how it was transported.
	alphabetilately.com /R.html (1886 words)

	[No title]
		In addition, the Division of Railway Adjustments handled arrangements in establishing rates for new railroad routes and made adjustments in existing mail service on steam and electric railways.
		The Railway Post Office Service was established on July 7, 1862, to facilitate the distribution of overland mail on the route from Hannibal, Missouri, to St. Joseph, Missouri.
		The records relate, among other subjects, to complaints about and suggestions for improvements in railway mail service, 1924 to 1929; publicity concerning the service, 1918 to 1926; devices for discharging mail from moving trains, 1902 to 1906; unsatisfactory service at the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad station at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1917 to 1918; and employee organizations.
	www.rlhs.org /narip11.htm (6585 words)

	The Winchester Star-Railway Archives Buys Boyce Station (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-09-10)
		Built in 1913, the Boyce Railway Station was used as a combination passenger and freight station for the Norfolk and Western Railway.
		We have looked at buildings as far away as Greenback, Tenn., and Cumberland, Md., but this is perfect, with the train station and the fact that this building was used by the town of Boyce as their post office,” Scheer said.
		According to the RMSL, the postal service ran the Railway Mail Service from 1864 to 1977.
	www.winchesterstar.com /TheWinchesterStar/031017/Area_railway.asp (527 words)

	U.S. Postal Service
		In 1672 a monthly postal service was put in operation between New York and Boston.
		An intercolonial postal service was begun in 1691 by a private individual, and in 1706 the British Government took over the service and made it a branch of the general post office of London.
		Adhesive stamps came into use in 1847, registered mail in 1855, Railway Mail Service in 1864, free city delivery in 1863, rural delivery in some sections as early as 1896...
	www.angelfire.com /tn/tnkin/uspost.html (274 words)

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