Descriptive Summary
Access
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Acquisition Information
Biography/Administrative History
Scope and Content of Collection
Indexing Terms
Descriptive Summary
Title: United States Railway Mail Service postmark collection
Dates: 1900-1967
Collection Number: MS 685
Creator/Collector:
United States Railway Mail Service
Extent: 1 half-box
Repository:
California State Railroad Museum Library and Archives
Sacramento, California 95814
Abstract: Includes sixteen envelopes and fifty-six postcards with Railway Mail Service (RMS) or Postal Transportation Service (PTS)
cancels.
Language of Material: English
Access
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.
Publication Rights
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 Librarian. 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.
Preferred Citation
United States Railway Mail Service postmark collection. California State Railroad Museum Library and Archives
Acquisition Information
Gift of Skip Herbert, 2003
Biography/Administrative History
The Railway Mail Service (RMS), a Department of the United States Post Office, and its successor the Postal Transportation
Service (PTS), carried most of the mail in the United States between 1890 and 1970.
Established in 1869, the Railway Mail Service provided for the movement of mail by train. Highly trained RMS postal clerks
staffed the Railway Post Office (RPO), a separate car on a passenger train. Mail sorted en route, received a cancellation
just as if it had been mailed at a local post office. On October 1, 1948, the Railway Mail Service was renamed the Postal
Transportation Service. The last railway post office car operated between New York and Washington, D.C. on June 30, 1977.
Scope and Content of Collection
Includes sixteen envelopes and fifty-six postcards with Railway Mail Service (RMS) or Postal Transportation Service (PTS)
cancels. An index notes the postmark, date, train number, name of the train, and the railroad for each item. Postmarks
from trains operated by the Southern Pacific, Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, Union Pacific, Virginia & Truckee, Spokane, Portland
& Seattle, Sierra, and Northwestern Pacific railroads are represented.
Arranged chronologically.
No online items
