Railway Mail Car

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Railroad Mail Car 1920s Railroad Mail Car 1920s Presorted First-Class Presorted First-Class NTED STATES MAIL MIWAY POST OFFIE UNITED STATES MAIL MNAY POST OFFICE SANT 21 USA SA 16 1988 8750 .*** .. UNITED STADES MANL JRAUCWAY IPUST ODENICE Zail NM

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RAILWAY MAIL CAR First Day of Issue: August 16, 1988 First Issue Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico In America's colonial days, mail agents jogged along on horseback at a few miles per hour. Later they enjoyed post-roads, and a choice of transportation alternatives — "stages, sulkies, four-horse post-coaches, horseback, packets and steam boats,” according to one list. But it was the railway mail car that allowed the U.S. Post Office to come into its own. The first Post Office mail car was introduced in America in 1864, and the U.S. Post Office quickly embraced the basic mail car idea. The first fast mail train departed Grand Central Station for Chicago on September 16, 1875, and completed the trip in less than twenty-six hours. The speed of the trip amply demon- strated the advantages of a new system of catching mail bags on the run with an iron arm. The express whizzed past more than a hundred stations, seizing mail bags at each one, without a stop. By 1888, mail was distributed over 126,310 miles of railroad line with postal clerks sometimes riding in the cars to sort and pouch mail en route. The mail car had earned a place in postal history. No. 88-46 ©1988 The Maximum Card Collection A Division of Unicover Corporation Cheyenne, WY 82008-0007 Original painting by Basil Smith