In the 1830s, the United Kingdom and the United States started carrying mail bags by train on their normal routes. Then, some years later, George B. Armstrong, assistant postmaster at Chicago, came up with the idea of sorting the mail on the train, while en route to its destination, to save time. The Railway Post Office (or RPO) was born!
A Railway Post Office looked like a normal train car on the outside, but had a unique interior design, with movable cast-iron fixtures that held the mail bags for sorting. These could also be folded if space was needed, as the train wagons tended to get very crowded! They also had their own cancellation stamps used only on board, and a special hook to snatch a bag of mail on the towns where the train didn’t stop. You can a demonstration of its use here.
They became so widespread that in the 1880s, most passenger train routes in the US had their own Railway Post Office, allowing for a very efficient and speedy mail delivery. At the peak of their popularity in the 1940s, RPO’s were in use in over 9000 train routes, covering more than 200,000 route miles. In the next few decades though, the service would slowly decline and be replaced by airmail. The last Railway Post Office, which travelled between New York and Washington D.C., closed in 1977.
Railway Post Offices now live in museums around the world, and on these beautiful pictures by the Smithsonian Institution on Flickr.
15 comments so far
I have a wonderful old postcard with a RPO date stamp that reads : MPLS. & OSAGE , P.P.O. Jan 10, 1908 T209 (Train 209 possibly ) It was mailed to Centralia, Wash. I came upon this card in a junkbox of old postcards that I purchased about a year ago.There were a few other interesting finds in the box along with this one.
postcrossing educates. ;) :)
Amazing, I love these old rail mails .It just made sense.
I have a couple of postcards of The Shrewsbury - York U.K. Travelling Post Office in my postcards for trade album.
https://picasaweb.google.com/thumper400/PostcardsForTradePostalHistory#5424481619739993522
Postal History 17 - The Shrewsbury - York Travelling Post Office
https://picasaweb.google.com/thumper400/PostcardsForTradePostalHistory#5424482124065339298
Postal History 29 - The Shrewsbury - York Travelling Post Office (Train)
There were RPO in Taiwan as well. The post office worker sorted the mail on the train and deliver them when the train arrived. But we have only one Bus post office left now. :D
I love trains! When you mix trains with post offices... LOVE IT MORE! :D
Here in Ireland it was known as the TPO - the Travelling Post Office. I work for the Post Office and I remember the day the TPO was no more when our post was moved from the railway network to road.
My Great-Granddad was a postmaster on the Minneapolis to Kansas city route/run in the 20's-40's I have grand stories and a 1923 portable typewriter to remember him by. Thank you for showing the photos.
This is a really interesting and fascinating post. I've learned quite a lot from it. Thank you for sharing this.
I love these historical mail tidbits whenever you post them for us. A year or so ago I LOVED reading about tin can mail and was fascinated by the story. A few months ago I decided to sort the box of stamps my husband inherited from his grandmother....imagine my delight when I found a piece of tin can mail in there!
This story, again, is new to me, I never heard of the RPO before. Now I'll have to search through this box again and see if one of THOSE treasures is to be found in there, as well!
Thanks for sharing these interesting lessons!
Another great blog article. Now I'm going to wonder if I have any cards with those postmarks! Thanks for posting it :D
Amazing!!
Very interesting & great to learn about the history of our mail service.Than you~~
In 1936 a documentary was made in the UK about the journey taken by the mail train from London to Scotland "Night Mail". It's definately worth a look to see how the train operated at that time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_oekWnniDU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZdWxPuhsyQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDYlrsih_Wk&feature=related
After I have read this blog, I where on a fleamarket and found a Swedish postcard with a railway post office
http://auroraaurum.wordpress.com/2011/06/09/post-pa-taget/