=A0 =A0 Mail boxes were on the platform at many railroad stations which were collected by the clerks in the Railway Post Office car.=A0 Some examples were at the Rock Island station in Enid, Oklahoma, and the M-K-T's Highland Park suburban station in Dallas.=A0 The latter was served by the Texas Special and a letter mailed there would be delivered in St. Louis the next morning.=A0=20
=A0=A0=A0RPO's sorted the mail en route so it reached its destination ready for the letter carriers, in many instances. Many non-stop points along the route of the RPO were served by catcher arms on the RPO cars, where the outgoing puuch was picked up without stopping and the incoming pouch was sent out the door for the mail messenger or agent to retrieve. Note this meant many intermediate points, not just large cities, were served this way which meant they had as good and fast a service as large cities...and much faster than airmail service where the mail had to be taken to and from an airport by the Postal Service or taken from the airport to the destination post office.
=A0 =A0 With RPOs covering th U.S.A., Frank's 2,000-mile figure is about right for air mail to be faster mostly between cities with airports, but for non-airport cities the distance would bw much further before air mail would be faster because of the prior and/or subsequent movement by surface transport.
Wes Leatherock snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com snipped-for-privacy@aol.com
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