Existing comment:
Mail By Rail:
Sorting mail on moving trains was one of the postal service's greatest innovations. After the Civil War, officials sought faster and more efficient ways to handle the increasing postal volumes. Clerks were placed on board railcars to sort and process mail while trains raced toward their destinations.
This method for processing railway mail grew to be a mainstay of postal operations, but it came to and end in 1977 and three decades of declining railroad traffic. |