The Railway Mail Service of the United States Post Office Department was a significant mail transportation 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.

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.

Operating divisions – 1950

  • First Division: Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts. Headquarters: Boston, Massachusetts.
  • Second Division: New York, New Jersey. Headquarters: New York City.
  • Third Division: District of Columbia, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina. Headquarters: Washington, D.C.
  • Fourth Division: Tennessee, South Carolina, Alabama, 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. Headquarters: Seattle.
  • Fourteenth Division: Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska. Headquarters: 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, railway service mascot
  • Railway Mail Service Library
  • Washington Park and Zoo Railway

References

Citations

Sources

Further reading

Primary sources

  • Mobile Post Office Society
  • 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