Mail delivery by Trolley:

http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu...streetcar_movie.html





Coastal Port linking railway and steamboat lines:Source: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA...l/modern.html#create




Railway Post office workers (same source as above):


Read more about RPO in here:

http://www.trains.com/trn/default.aspx?c=a&id=345

Excerpt copyrighted TRAINS Mag.


RPO rolling stock

"RPO cars were owned by and lettered for the various railroads, with UNITED STATES MAIL RAILWAY POST OFFICE also appearing on their sides. They were externally similar to baggage cars, except for their narrower doors and small windows.

Inside, the layout of pouch racks, letter cases, and other fittings was prescribed by the Post Office, ensuring adequate facilities and nationwide uniformity. RPO "apartments" came in a variety of sizes, with 15, 30, and 60 feet being the most common; the remainder of the car's length was usually devoted to baggage space and, sometimes, passenger seating.

Most RPO sections were in locomotive-hauled cars, though electric M.U.'s, gas-electrics, and Rail Diesel Cars also had them. The last mail cars built were streamlined, 85-foot baggage-RPO's for Union Pacific in 1963."


Great Northern RPO No. 42: Great Northern Railway Post Office car No. 42 is one of six streamlined baggage-mail cars built for the Great Northern Railway by American Car & Foundry Company (Lot 3442) in 1950



Source: http://www.csrmf.org/doc.asp?ID=186

Let's see your model RPO car

I have always had an interest in Post Offices, my grandfather was a Postmaster for a Post Office during British colonial rule.

Prairie

Union Street Railway (Massachusetts) RPO car 302, currently
undergoing restoration at Shore Line Trolley Museum,
in Connecticut.




Lee

quote:

Originally posted by Lee Carlson:
Union Street Railway (Massachusetts) RPO car 302, currently
undergoing restoration at Shore Line Trolley Museum,
in Connecticut.
Lee

Lee thanks for that nice pic and your nice photos in the Newark PCC thread. I love restoration projects of old vehicles.

Here is a link to that Great Northern RPO. Something went amiss when I tried to post this pic. It was working last night. Strange.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/w...rthern_RPO_No_42.jpg

Prairie

From its beginnings in 1860 up to 1925, the Staten Island Railway and the later Staten Island Rapid Transit carried bagged mail to be dropped off at specified stations along its three lines. No RPO cars were used as mail was pre-sorted, bagged and tagged for various town post offices. This was a common practice on many suburban and interurban lines in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Bagged mail was loaded into combine cars at Vanderbilt Landing (Clifton) and after 1886, at St. George from ferries arriving from Manhattan and Brooklyn. There was no central post office for the Island until after WW I.

Combines on the SIRT were also 'smoker' cars for men only. Smoking (and chewing tobacco) was not permitted in the coaches. Women were not permitted to ride in the smoker car even if they did smoke, which in that time was considered un-lady-like when done in public.

No RPO/US Mail personnel were used. Train crews were instructed as to which station mail bags were to be dropped (and others picked up), according to their tags. Express packages and newspaper bundles were also delivered to various Island communities by rail.

SIRT employee timetable rules stated that mail bags, express and newspaper bundles "are to be carefully placed, not thrown, in locations where they will not be an impediment to passengers or be subject to inclement weather."

This mail and express service ended in 1925 with electrification and new, steel MUE cars built for compatibility with the BMT subway. By this time Island roads had improved, as did the motor truck for mail, express and newspaper deliveries.

Ed Bommer

quote:

Originally posted by Ed Bommer:

SIRT employee timetable rules stated that mail bags, express and newspaper bundles "are to be carefully placed, not thrown, in locations where they will not be an impediment to passengers or be subject to inclement weather."

This mail and express service ended in 1925 with electrification and new, steel MUE cars built for compatibility with the BMT subway. By this time Island roads had improved, as did the motor truck for mail, express and newspaper deliveries.

Ed Bommer

Ed thanks very much for your insightful contribution to this thread. My grandfather would have loved to see one of those US Post Office rail cars.