The recent election season brought tons of related mail to local post offices for delivery to "occupant."  That usually means every mailbox, whether you have 

Retired Post Master and former RPO clerk John Johnson, holding up a canvass mailbag used in the train-cars.  The weight limit for the bags was 70 pounds for mail and  40 pounds for cash.

other mail or not.  Now we are faced with the upcoming holiday season that will create another volume surge for the postal service.

            There are times when we see large trucks wait in line to have their mail unloaded at giant postal distribution centers and sorted by dozens of clerks before moving on to their next destination.  The mail eventually gets to the local post office and to your mailbox.

            Prior to the 1870s our local mail service consisted of delivery by horse and wagon to the next town for sorting and moving on to the next stop.

            In the early 1870s, people around here were excited when the railroad came here and you could have your letter put on the train in East Greenville and have it arrive at the Collegeville station the same day.

            But, what about that letter that was going from East Greenville to  

Up to fourteen clerks would sometimes work in the cramped quarters of the RPO, sorting mail to expedite the postal process.

California?  How efficient was it to drop it in a mailbag and go from post office to post office for dropping off, sorting, dropping off, sorting again … you get the picture.

            Enter the Railway Mail Service and the services Railway Post Office Clerks who made up the Railroad Post Office or RPO.  According to the National Postal Museum mail was carried by train as early as the 1830s but the RPO service began during the Civil War and had its last run in 1977.  Instead of just transporting the mail from location to location, the RPO provided an efficient way to sort the mail in specially designed cars while moving. 

            I recently had the opportunity to talk to retired Post Master John Johnson in his Upper Hanover Township home.  John began his service with the United States Postal Service in 1962 and served as a Railway Post Office Clerk on a special RPO car on a train from 1963 to 1967.  The 

John Johnson showing off his "office"; a sturdy suitcase, compartmentalized for use while performing his duties as an RPO clerk.

car belonged to the railroad but the clerk was a postal employee.  The RPO cars were attached to passenger and freight trains.

            The typical work day for the RPO clerk was 12-14 hours, working six days on followed by six days off.  When the train stopped for the night, the clerk needed to find a place to stay.  As postal, not railroad, employees, the clerks were not allowed to remain on the train.  Johnson said that some of the clerks had regular places to stay in the homes of folks who were looking to rent out a room now and then.
            Depending on the size of the mail car, anywhere from one to 14 clerks would be sorting the mail while the train was making its way from location to location; often in cramped working conditions. 

            John shared numerous items from his days on the RPO with me including a large canvas mailbag.  The rule was the bag was limited to 70 pounds or 40 pounds of cash.  At times, small fortunes were carried in the mail cars posing an attractive target for would-be thieves.  This prompted some of the RPO clerks to carry guns.

Railroad Post Office cars were attached to passenger trains and freight train.  The cars belonged to the railroad but the workers inside were postal employees.

            After serving as an RPO clerk, Johnson moved on to several other post offices, eventually retiring as postmaster covering the East Greenville, Macungie, and Limeport post offices, also, at times, filling and doing the postmaster duties at the Red Hill Post Office before retiring in 2001.

            At the time, the RPOs were an efficient addition to the process of sending, sorting, and delivering the mail.