View source for Railway Mail Service

{{Short description|US mail transportation service}}
The  '''Railway Mail Service''' of the [[United States Post Office Department]] was a significant [[mail]] [[transport]]ation service in the US from the mid-19th century until the mid-20th century. The RMS, or its successor the [[Postal Transportation Service]] (PTS), carried the vast majority of letters and packages mailed in the [[United States]] from the 1890s until the 1960s.

==History==
George B. Armstrong, manager of the Chicago Post Office, is generally credited with being the founder of the concept of en route mail sorting aboard trains which became the Railway Mail Service.  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.<ref name="White 475-6">{{White-Passenger-1978|pages=475–476}}</ref>

[[File:Pioneer Zephyr, RPO section.jpg|thumb|200px|The [[railway post office|RPO]] section of the ''[[Pioneer Zephyr]]'']]In response to Armstrong's request to experiment with the concept, the first [[railway post office]] (RPO) began operating on the [[Chicago and North Western Railway]] between [[Chicago]] and [[Clinton, Iowa]], on August 28, 1864.<ref name="White 475-6" />  The concept was successful, and was expanded to other railroads operating from Chicago, including the [[Chicago, Burlington and Quincy]], [[Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad|Chicago and Rock Island]], [[Pennsylvania Railroad|Pennsylvania]] and the [[Erie Railroad|Erie]].

By 1869 when the Railway Mail Service was officially inaugurated,<ref name="White 475-6" /> the system had expanded to virtually all of the major [[Rail transport|railroads]] of the [[United States]], and the country was divided into six operating divisions.  A superintendent was over each division, all under the direction of George B. Armstrong, who had been summoned from Chicago to [[Washington, D.C.]], to become general superintendent of the postal railway service.  Armstrong served only two years as general superintendent before resigning because of failing health.  He died in Chicago on May 5, 1871, two days after his resignation.

Armstrong's successor in Chicago, [[George Bangs]], was appointed as the second general superintendent of the postal railway service.  Bangs encouraged the use of fast mail trains, trains made up entirely of mail cars, traveling on expedited schedules designed to accommodate the needs of the Post Office rather than the needs of the traveling public.

[[Image:RPO-cancel-w.jpg|thumb|Railway Mail Service (note the "RMS" in the obliterator) postal cancellation]]
In 1890, 5,800 postal railway clerks provided service over {{convert|154800|mi|km}} of railroad.  By 1907, over 14,000 clerks were providing service over {{convert|203000|mi|km}} of railroad.  When the post office began handling parcel post in 1913, [[Terminal Railway Post Office]] operations were established in major cities by the RMS to handle the large increase in mail volume.  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.  After 1942, [[Highway Post Office]] (HPO) service was utilized to continue en route sorting after discontinuance of some railway post office operations.  As highway mail transportation became more prevalent, the Railway Mail Service was redesignated as the Postal Transportation Service.

Abandonment of routes accelerated in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and many of the remaining lines were discontinued in 1967.  On June 30, 1974, the [[Cleveland]] and [[Cincinnati]] highway post office, the last HPO route, was discontinued.  The last railway post office operated between [[New York City|New York]] and Washington, D.C., on June 30, 1977.

A large bust and monument to Armstrong is displayed in the north side of Chicago's Loop Station Post Office.

== Preserved and restored RPO railway cars ==
A restored RPO car is displayed as part of the ''[[Pioneer Zephyr]]'' at the Chicago's [[Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago)|Museum of Science and Industry]].

The restored 1927 AT&SF Railway #74 [https://www.psrm.org/trains/passenger/atsf-74/ RPO car] is displayed at the [[Pacific Southwest Railway Museum]] in Campo (San Diego County), California.

For the permanent exhibition, Mail by Rail, the [[Smithsonian]] [[National Postal Museum]] re-created a railway mail train in its Atrium. The interior fixtures are from a de-commissioned mail car. The exterior portion of the Railway Post Office train was created by Smithsonian artisans.<ref>{{cite web |title=Mail by Rail {{!}} National Postal Museum |url=https://postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibits/current/moving-the-mail/mail-by-rail/index.html |website=postalmuseum.si.edu |access-date=9 September 2020 |archive-date=11 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200911100536/https://postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibits/current/moving-the-mail/mail-by-rail/index.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Operating divisions – 1950==
*First Division: [[Maine]], [[Vermont]], [[New Hampshire]], [[Rhode Island]], [[Connecticut]], [[Massachusetts]].  Headquarters: [[Boston]], Massachusetts.
*Second Division: [[New York (state)|New York]], [[New Jersey]].  Headquarters: [[New York City]].
*Third Division: [[Washington, D.C.|District of Columbia]], [[Virginia]], [[West Virginia]], [[North Carolina]].  Headquarters: [[Washington, D.C.]]
*Fourth Division: [[Tennessee]], [[South Carolina]], [[Alabama]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], [[Florida]].  Headquarters: [[Atlanta]].
*Fifth Division: [[Kentucky]], [[Indiana]], [[Ohio]].  Headquarters: [[Cincinnati]].
*Sixth Division: [[Illinois]], [[Iowa]].  Headquarters: [[Chicago]].
*Seventh Division: [[Missouri]], [[Kansas]].  Headquarters: [[St. Louis, Missouri]].
*Eighth Division: [[California]], [[Nevada]], [[Utah]], [[Arizona]].  Headquarters: [[San Francisco]].
*Ninth Division: [[Michigan]], also lines of [[New York Central Railroad]] between [[New York City]] and [[Chicago]].  Headquarters: [[Cleveland]].
*Tenth Division: [[North Dakota]], [[South Dakota]], [[Minnesota]], [[Wisconsin]], [[Upper Peninsula of Michigan]].  Headquarters: [[St. Paul, Minnesota]].
*Eleventh Division: [[New Mexico]], [[Texas]], [[Oklahoma]].  Headquarters: [[Fort Worth]].
*Twelfth Division: [[Arkansas]], [[Louisiana]], [[Mississippi]].  Headquarters: [[New Orleans]].
*Thirteenth Division: [[Montana]], [[Idaho]], [[Oregon]], [[Washington state|Washington]].  Headquarters: [[Seattle]].
*Fourteenth Division: [[Colorado]], [[Wyoming]], [[Nebraska]].  Headquarters: [[Omaha, Nebraska|Omaha]].
*Fifteenth Division: [[Pennsylvania]], [[Delaware]], also lines of [[Pennsylvania Railroad]] west of [[Pittsburgh]].  Headquarters: [[Pittsburgh]].

Effective August 15, 1955, the fifteen divisions of the Postal Transportation Service were eliminated and the mail routes divided among the same Postal Regions into which Post Offices were classified.

==See also==
* [[Owney (dog)|Owney, railway service mascot]]
* [[Railway Mail Service Library]]
* [[Washington Park and Zoo Railway#Mail|Washington Park and Zoo Railway]]

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}

=== Sources ===
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last=Bergman |first=Edwin B. |title=29 Years to Oblivion, The Last Years of Railway Mail Service in the United States |publisher=Mobile Post Office Society |year=1980 |location=Omaha, NE}}
* {{cite book |last=Carr |first=Clark E. |title=The Railway Mail Service, Its Origin and Development |publisher=A.C. McClurg & Co. |year=1909 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hHKnybb3RugC&dq=%22Railway+Mail+Service,%22&pg=PA1}}
* {{cite magazine |last=Pennypacker |first=Bert |title=The Evolution of Railway Mail |magazine=National Railway Bulletin |volume=60 |issue=2 |year=1995}}
* {{cite journal |last=Romanski |first=Fred J. |title=The Fast Mail, History of the Railway Mail Service |journal=Prologue |volume=37 |issue=3 |date=Fall 2005 |pages=12–21}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
{{ref begin}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Gandy |first1=S. Kay |first2=Cynthia Williams |last2=Resor |title=Changing technology and the US mail |journal=The Social Studies |volume=103 |issue=6 |year=2012 |pages=226–232 |doi=10.1080/00377996.2011.630696}}
* {{cite journal |last=Mason |first=Virginia W. |title=Frank H. Galbraith's railway mail service maps, 1897 |journal=Cartographic Perspectives |volume=41 |date=Winter 2002 |issue=41 |pages=24–43 |doi=10.14714/CP41.562 |url=https://scholar.archive.org/work/xpu3cwpo2zgghjxodse56jwsu4/access/wayback/https://cartographicperspectives.org/index.php/journal/article/download/cp41-mason/pdf|doi-access=free }}
* {{cite journal |last=Tunell |first=George G. |title=The Charge for Railway Mail Carriage |journal=Journal of Political Economy |volume=7 |issue=2 |year=1899 |pages=145–160 |doi=10.1086/250577 |jstor=1820574 |jstor-access=free}}
{{ref end}}

==Primary sources==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last=Armstrong |first=George Buchanan |title=The Beginnings of the True Railway Mail Service: And the Work of George B. Armstrong in Founding it |publisher=Lakeside Press |year=1906 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nhtnOc_lK6gC&dq=%22Railway+Mail+Service,%22&pg=PA3}}
* {{cite book |last=White |first=James E. |title=A Life Span and Reminiscences of Railway Mail Service |publisher=Deemer & Jaisohn |location=Philadelphia |year=1910 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5FPh7keh6X8C&dq=%22Railway+Mail+Service,%22&pg=PA1}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category multi|Railway post offices|Postal rail vans}}
* [http://www.eskimo.com/~rkunz/mposhome.html# Mobile Post Office Society]
*[https://postalmuseum.si.edu/topics/railway-mail-service National Postal Museum - Railway Post Office]
* Bergman, Edwin B. (1980) ''29 Years to Oblivion, The Last Years of Railway Mail Service in the United States'', Mobile Post Office Society, [[Omaha, Nebraska]].
* Wilking, Clarence. (1985) ''The Railway Mail Service'', Railway Mail Service Library, [[Boyce, Virginia]].  Available as an MS Word file at http://www.railwaymailservicelibrary.org/articles/THE_RMS.DOC
* U.S. Post Office Department. (1956) ''MEN AND MAIL IN TRANSIT'', Railway Mail Service Library, [[Boyce, Virginia]].  Portion available as a video clip at http://www.railwaymailservicelibrary.org/videos/m&mit01.MPG
* National Postal Transport Association. (1956) ''MAIL IN MOTION'', Railway Mail Service Library, [[Boyce, Virginia]].  Portion available as a video clip at http://www.railwaymailservicelibrary.org/videos/MIM-01.MPG

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{{United States Postal Service}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Rail transportation in the United States]]
[[Category:United States Post Office Department]]
[[Category:History of Chicago]]
[[Category:Postal history of the United States]]