Railway Post Office Car, Interior View

The federal government considered that any route traveled by a train would become a mail route creating a national network of railroad mail service named, appropriately, Railway Mail Service or RMS. The first RMS run was on the Chicago and Northwestern Railway in 1864. Railroads from the mighty to the tiny held government contract to carry the mail between cities and to remote mountain villages, essentially anywhere a railroad travelled. Railroads also had fleets of railway post offices, or RPOs, for mail sorting between stations, towns, and cities. Mail sorting in an RPO was hard, fast-paced work with only the most reputable and qualified applicants becoming clerks for the RMS. They also carried sidearms to protect against an attempted robbery. In this circa 1906 view, we get to see the interior of an RPO and a clerk sorting the mail. For more information on this fascinating aspect of US Mail and railroading history, click Here and Here.