Streetcar Post Offices (RPOs)

Introduction

During the late 1800s and early 1900s, the U.S. Post Office Department operated Railway Post Offices (RPOs) on streetcars in several cities. They carried mail between post office branches, with clerks sorting the mail on board to speed processing at the post offices. Some electric interurban routes also had RPOs, which served the same functions as RPOs on steam (and later diesel) railroads.

People could deposit mail on these cars, sometimes via slots in their sides. The clerks would postmark that mail on board. This page shows some examples of such mail.

Some of these cars are preserved in streetcar museums, for example:

• Car 6 of the Chicago Surface Lines, at the Fox River Trolley Museum
• Car 108 of the Portsmouth, Dover & York [New Hampshire and Maine] Street Railway, at the Seashore Trolley Museum.
• Car 34 of the Union Street Railway of New Bedford, Massachusetts, also at the Seashore Trolley Museum.

Other Sites

• Trolley Mail Service, at the National Postal Museum
• The ‘Octopus’ Moves the Mail (about streetcar RPO service in San Francisco)

Pictures of Streetcar RPO Mail

• Baltimore, Maryland
  • Arlington & South Baltimore R.P.O. (October 1904?)
  • Baltimore & Arlington R.P.O. (Flag cancel, November 1916)
  • Roland Park & St. Helena R.P.O. (May 1909)
  • Towson & Catonsville R.P.O. (November 1906)
  • Towson & Catonsville R.P.O. (Machine cancel, January 1924)
• Boston, Massachusetts
  • Boston Circuit R.P.O. (Flag cancel, April 1907); this postcard pictures an entrance to Boston's streetcar subway (today's Green Line).
  • Boston Circuit R.P.O. (Flag cancel, August 1907; a different type from the preceding picture)