NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Railway post office

A railway post office, commonly abbreviated as RPO, was a railroad car that was normally operated in passenger service as a means to sort mail en route, in order to speed delivery. The RPO was staffed by highly trained Railway Mail Service postal clerks, and was off-limits to the passengers on the train. Jump to: navigation, search ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (1024x768, 290 KB) Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad 1926, a Railway Post Office preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum. ... Jump to: navigation, search ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (1024x768, 290 KB) Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad 1926, a Railway Post Office preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum. ... The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad (AAR reporting mark CBQ) was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. ... The only surviving EMD E5 is used regularly on the museums excursion trains, usually pulling the Nebraska Zephyr. ... This is the top-level page of WikiProject trains Rail tracks Rail transport refers to the land transport of passengers and goods along railways or railroads. ... A British pillar box The postal system is a system by which written documents typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages containing other matter, are delivered to destinations around the world. ... The United States Postal Services Railway Mail Service was a significant mail transportation service in the US during the from the mid-19th century until the mid-20th century. ... This article is about trains in rail transport. ...

History

The first sorting of mail en route in the U.S.A. was in 1862 between Hannibal, Missouri, and St. Joseph, Missouri. Its purpose was to separate mail for connection with a westbound stage departing soon after the train's arrival at St. Joseph. This service lasted approximately one year. Hannibal is a city located in Marion and Ralls County, Missouri. ... Saint Joseph (also known as St. ...

The first permanent Railway Post Office route was established on August 28, 1864, between Chicago, Illinois, and Clinton, Iowa. This service is distinguished from the 1862 operation because mail was sorted to and received from each post office along the route, as well as major post offices beyond the route's end-points. Jump to: navigation, search Chicago, colloquially known as the Second City and the Windy City, is the third-largest city in population in the United States and the largest inland city in the country. ... Clinton is a city located in Clinton County, Iowa. ...

By the 1880s, railway post office routes were operating on the vast majority of passenger trains in the United States. A complex network of interconnected routes allowed mail to be transported and delivered in a remarkably short time. Railway mail clerks were subjected to stringent training and ongoing testing of details regarding their handling of the mail. On a given RPO route, each clerk was expected to know not only the post offices and rail junctions along the route, but also specific local delivery details within each of the larger cities served by the route. Periodic testing demanded both accuracy and speed in sorting mail, and a clerk scoring only 96% accuracy would likely receive a warning from the Railway Mail Service division superintendent. This article is about trains in rail transport. ... The United States Postal Services Railway Mail Service was a significant mail transportation service in the US during the from the mid-19th century until the mid-20th century. ...

In the United States, RPO cars (also known as mail cars or postal cars) were equipped and staffed to handle most back-end postal processing functions. First class mail, magazines and newspapers were all sorted, cancelled when necessary, and dispatched to post offices in towns along the route. Registered mail was also handled, and the foreman in charge was required to carry a regulation pistol while on duty, to discourage theft of the mail.

An interesting feature of most RPO cars was a hook that could be used to snatch a leather or canvas pouch of outgoing mail hanging on a track-side mail crane at smaller towns where the train did not stop. With the train often operating at 70 miles per hour or faster, a postal clerk would have a pouch of mail ready to be dispatched as the train passed the station. In a coordinated movement, the catcher arm was swung out to catch the hanging mail pouch while the clerk stood in the open doorway. As the inbound pouch slammed into the catcher arm, the clerk kicked the outbound mail pouch out of the car, making certain to kick it far enough that it was not sucked back under the speeding train. An employee of the local post office would retreive the pouch and deliver it to the post office.

Most RPO cars had a mail slot on the side of the car, so that mail could actually be deposited in the car, much like using the corner mail box, while the train was stopped at a station. Those desiring the fastest delivery would bring their letters to the train station for dispatch on the RPO, knowing that overnight delivery would be virtually assured. The mail handled in this manner received a cancellation just as if it had been mailed at a local post office, with the cancel giving the train number, endpoint cities of the RPO route, the date, and RMS Railway Mail Service or PTS Postal Transportation Service between the killer bars. Collecting such cancellations is a pastime of many philatelists and postal history researchers. Jump to: navigation, search Image File history File links RPO-cancel-w. ... Jump to: navigation, search Image File history File links RPO-cancel-w. ... Jump to: navigation, search The Nashville skyline Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee. ... Jump to: navigation, search Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, of which it is the county seat. ... The United States Postal Services Railway Mail Service was a significant mail transportation service in the US during the from the mid-19th century until the mid-20th century. ... Close examination of the Penny Red, left, reveals a 148 in the margin, indicating that it was printed with plate #148. ... For a time after the Anschluss in 1938, letters from Austria to Germany were required to add German stamps, resulting in a mixed franking. ...

The Railway Mail Service organization within the Post Office Department existed between 1864 and September 30, 1948. It was renamed the Postal Transportation Service on October 1, 1948, and existed until 1960. After 1960, the management of Railway Post Office routes as well as Highway Post Office routes, Air Mail Facilities, Terminal Railway Post Offices, and Transfer Offices, were shifted to the Bureau of Transportation. The Post Office Department was the former name of the United States Postal Service when it was a cabinet department. ...

After 1948, the Railway Post Office network began its decline although it remained principal intercity mail transportation and distribution function within the Post Office Department. There were 794 RPO lines operating over 161,000 miles of railroad in that year. Only 262 RPO routes were still operating by January 1, 1962. In 1942, the U.S. Post Office began experimenting with a highway version of the RPO to serve the same purposes along routes where passenger train service was not available. These highway post office (HPO) vehicles were initially intended to supplement RPO service, but in the 1950s and 1960s, HPO's often replaced railway post office cars after passenger train service was discontinued. When the post office made a controversial policy change to process mail in large regional 'sectional centers', the remaining railway post office routes along with all highway post office routes were phased out of service. After 113 years of railway post office operation, the last surviving Railway Post Office running on rails between New York and Washington, D.C. was discontinued on June 30, 1977. Jump to: navigation, search 1948 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search 1962 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search State nickname: The Empire State Other U.S. States Capital Albany Largest city New York City Governor George Pataki (R) Senators Charles Schumer (D) Hillary Rodham Clinton (D) Official languages None (English is de facto) Area 141,205 kmÂ² or 54,556 square miles (27th) - Land... Jump to: navigation, search Washington, D.C. is the capital city of the United States of America. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1977 was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1977 calendar). ...

Ironically, the last route with a Railway Post Office title was actually a boat run that lasted a year longer. It was the Lake Winnipesaukee RPO operating between The Weirs, New Hampshire, and Bear Island, New Hampshire, on Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire. The final date it operated with a postmark was September 30, 1978. This article is about the postal marking. ...

References

Jump to: navigation, search Location in Nebraska Founded Incorporated 1854 1857 County Douglas County Mayor Michael Fahey Area - Total - Water 1290. ... Boyce is a town located in Clarke County, Virginia. ... Boyce is a town located in Clarke County, Virginia. ... Boyce is a town located in Clarke County, Virginia. ...

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References

See also

History