Dr Zarkoff Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> > Memory tells me it was 1967 when the USPS
> cancelled the mail by rail contracts.
>
> These were only the open pouch RPOs. Closed pouch
> RPOs continued well into the ATK era.


The Post Office Department distinguished between "working" storage mail cars and "sealed" storage mail cars. Mail route schedules showing space authorizations do not distinguish between the two so this information may have resided in book orders which have not survived. The "working" cars might have had loading and unloading en route during station stops because the bin space in a RPO car was constrained. As you noted, some sacks --but usually not pouches-- may have been held in the "working" car and transferred via the end door before or after distribution. This often occurred for rolled newspapers which were bulky. Bundles of individually-addressed newspapers or magazines for a single post office stayed in the "working" car and were put off by a Railway Postal Clerk. I believe that Grit, Saturday Evening Post, Life, Look, Time, Newsweek, and others were handled in this manner. A "sealed" storage mail car was often locked with a LA lock on one exterior door with the others latched from the inside and moved between Terminal Railway Post Offices. "Sealed" cars may have also had bulk loads of Mail Transport Equipment while others locked with a rotary lock carried bulk Registered Mail.

Best wishes,

Frank