#1942

In this seventy-foot car, mail was picked up, sorted, and delivered. Mail destined for the train was placed in a large pouch and attached to a crane, or hook, alongside the track. On each side of the mail car was a steel V-shaped catcher arm. Without stopping the train, a clerk in the car looked through a windshield and aimed the catcher arm at the mail pouch. The catcher arm then picked the mail pouch from the crane. At the same time, the clerk kicked off a pouch containing any mail for that station. At the height of Railway Post Office service in the 1950s, railroads carried ninety percent of the intercity mail in the U.S. This RPO car was donated in 1969 by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad.

Missouri · United States