The Railway Mail Service of the United States Post Office Department was a significant mail transportation service in the US from the mid-19th century until the mid-20th century. The RMS, or its successor the Postal Transportation Service (PTS), carried the vast majority of letters and packages mailed in the United States from the 1890s until the 1960s.
The United States Post Office Department was the predecessor of the United States Postal Service, established in 1792. From 1872 to 1971, it was officially in the form of a Cabinet department. It was headed by the postmaster general.
China Post, legally the China Post Group Corporation, is the state-owned enterprise operating the official postal service of China, which provides the service on Mainland China, excluding its special administrative regions, Hong Kong and Macao, which have their own postal service independent of the mainland's. Postal services on island of Taiwan, which is claimed as part of China but not controlled by it, are provided by Chunghwa Post.
In Canada and the United States, a railway post office, commonly abbreviated as RPO, was a railroad car that was normally operated in passenger service and used specifically for staff to sort mail en route, in order to speed delivery. The RPO was staffed by highly trained Railway Mail Service postal clerks, and was off-limits to the passengers on the train.
A Travelling Post Office (TPO) was a type of mail train used in Great Britain and Ireland where the post was sorted en route.
The Railway Mail Service (RMS) Library is a major collection of materials pertaining to en route distribution history. Incorporated in May 2003, it can assist researchers interested in Railway Mail Service, route agent, Seapost, Railway Post Office (RPO), and Highway Post Office (HPO) history. The collection has many unique, original-source documents that provide answers to questions dealing with the transportation and distribution of USA Mail between 1862 and 1977, as well as other countries during the 19th century and 20th century.
Terminal railway post offices were sorting facilities which were established by the Railway Mail Service to speed the distribution of parcel post. These offices were usually located in or near railroad stations in major cities or junction points. Terminal railway post offices operated generally from 1913-1914 into the mid-1960s, before their function was absorbed by post office sectional centers.
From the 1880s until well into the 1950s, virtually all long-distance transportation of United States Mail was performed by the railroads. Specially equipped railway post office (RPO) cars were a part of most passenger trains, the cars staffed by highly trained railway postal clerks who sorted mail as the train sped along its route. The growth of this mail distribution network paralleled the expansion of the railroads, allowing mail to be exchanged between routes at junction points where two railroads crossed or shared passenger terminals.
The Postal Transportation Service (PTS) was the renamed successor to the Railway Mail Service of the United States Post Office Department from October 1, 1949. Although this branch of the service had been in charge of all transit mail, some parts had little to do with railroads, even though they were still the most important part of the service. In 1950, of the 32,000 clerks assigned to the PTS, only about 16,000 actually worked on trains. The remainder were in terminals, transfer offices, Air Mail Facility, Highway Post Offices (HPO), administrative offices, etc. Boat Railway Post Office, Streetcar Railway Post Offices, and the Seapost Service had already been discontinued. The name of the Chief Clerk's office was changed to District Superintendent's office.
The British Rail Class 325 is an electric multiple unit (EMU) train owned by and operated for the Royal Mail to carry bulk mail. The class consists of four-car sets with dual-voltage 25 kV (AC) and 750 V (DC) power. While the Class 325 cabs bear a resemblance to the Networker family of DMUs and EMUs, the Class 325 is based on the Class 319.
The United States House Committee on Post Office and Post Roads was a congressional committee which existed until 1946. A Select Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads was established in 1806 and made a standing committee in 1808 during the 10th Congress. The early membership of the committee consisted of one Member from each state.
The Bangladesh Post Office also known by trade name Bangla Post is a government-operated agency responsible for providing postal services in Bangladesh. It is a subsidiary of the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology. This ministry is concerned with the policymaking for its two attached departments. The Director General of Bangladesh Post Office is Md Harunur Rashid.
The Postal Museum is a postal museum run by the Postal Heritage Trust. It began in 2004 as The British Postal Museum & Archive and opened in Central London as The Postal Museum on 28 July 2017.
Mobile post offices deliver mail and other postal services through specially equipped vehicles, such as trucks and trains.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is a cabinet-level governmental body of the Republic of China (Taiwan), in charge of all policy and regulation of transportation and communications networks and administration of all transportation and communications operations and enterprises in Taiwan.
The General Post Office (GPO) was the state postal system and telecommunications carrier of the United Kingdom until 1969. Established in England in the 17th century, the GPO was a state monopoly covering the dispatch of items from a specific sender to a specific receiver ; it was overseen by a Government minister, the Postmaster General. Over time its remit was extended to Scotland and Ireland, and across parts of the British Empire.
Egypt Post is the governmental agency responsible for postal service in Egypt. Established 29 October 1865, it is one of the oldest governmental institutions in the country.
A catcher pouch is a mail bag that can be used in conjunction with a mail hook to "catch" mail awaiting pickup from a moving train. Catcher pouches were most often used by railway post offices in the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century. Its use was limited to exchanges onto moving trains. The specially constructed catcher pouch was grabbed by the catcher mechanism in the passing railway car and the catcher pouch would release from the holding rings on the mail crane. This technique was known as "mail on the fly". Starting in the 1870s the use of this technique of the Railway Mail Service was an important issue in the United States. It was a popular technique and the backbone of the United States Postal Service through the 1930s.
The postal service of the British Army is today provided by the British Forces Post Office but its origins may be traced back to Saxon times.
The Ministry of Communications was a Cabinet-level ministry in the Empire of Japan. Its modern successors include the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan Post and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone
