Title: Ernest J. Mauck's highway post office papers

Dates: 1957-1967

Collection Number: MS 554

Creator/Collector: Mauck, Ernest J.

Extent: 3 folders

Repository: California State Railroad Museum Library and Archives

Abstract: This collection relates to the career of Ernest J. Mauck, a postal clerk with the Highway Post Office (HPO) Division of the Postal Transportation Service (PTS) on routes 19 and 20 between San Francisco and Redding.

Language of Material: English

This collection is open for research at our off-site storage facility with one week's notice. Contact Library & Archives staff to arrange for access.

Copyright has not been assigned to the California State Railroad Museum. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the CSRM Archivist. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the CSRM as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

Ernest J. Mauck's highway post office papers. California State Railroad Museum Library and Archives

Gift of Andrew Mauck, 2009

In 1942, the United States Postal Service (USPS) responded to the discontinuance of some railroad routes by implementing a Highway Post Office (HPO) along the same routes. Mail was sorted in a HPO bus instead of a railway post office car. HPO service grew rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s. In September of 1967 the USPS began to rely more on air and truck transportation for delivering mail. Most RPO and HPO routes were discontinued and the clerks reassigned. Ernest J. Mauck began his career as a postal clerk on a Railway Post Office car. By the late 1950s, Mr. Mauck was working as a postal clerk along a HPO route that followed a discontinued Southern Pacific RPO route between San Francisco and Redding.

This collection relates to the career of Ernest J. Mauck, a postal clerk with the Highway Post Office (HPO) Division of the Postal Transportation Service (PTS) on routes 19 and 20 between San Francisco and Redding. A logbook carried by Mr. Mauck between April 1965 and October 1967 records the movement of mail on his HPO route. The logbook used the Post Office Department's Form 5308, originally designed to record mail service on board Railway Post Office (RPO) cars. Each form includes the bus number, the names of the bus driver and clerks on duty during each run, the hours they worked, how much mail each clerk sorted, distribution of the mail, any irregularities, and emergency mechanical service to the bus. The front of the logbook also contains important phone numbers and delivery deadlines. A postmark from Southern Pacific train No. 20's last trip (September 29, 196) includes two RPO postmarks, a highway post office mark, as well as the train and HPO number. Mr. Mauck's personal copy of the United States Post Office Department POSTAL MANUAL (1957) includes a 1958 postcard from Keith referencing the manual. Railway mail service artifacts used by Mr. Mauck have been added to the Museum's artifact collection.