Mail car

“ Speed and reliability are the essence of mail-carrying. It's the time taken from the office boy licking the stamp until the presentation paper-knife slits open the envelope at the other end that counts, and the letter has always got to get there. The only letter-writers in a tremendous hurry, excepting the mad people who are frantically in love, are in the main centres of population, and they are connected by fast train services. Also, the wireless telephone rather put a bend in the show—talk to anybody anywhere at any time.
Erecting the 15-ton Felixstowe Fury. ”

“ Railroad companies will be expected to place their mail cars at points accessible to mail messengers or contractors for wagon service. If cars are not so placed the companies will be required to receive the mails from and deliver them to the messengers or contractors at points accessible to the wagon of the messenger or contractor. ”

“ Some mail-cars are built without doors in the ends; hence, such a car is "blind." The mail-cars that possess end doors, have those doors always locked. Suppose, after the train has started, that a tramp gets on to the platform of one of these blind cars. There is no door, or the door is locked. No conductor or brakeman can get to him to collect fare or throw him off. It is clear that the tramp is safe until the next time the train stops. Then he must get off, run ahead in the darkness, and when the train pulls by, jump on to the blind again. ”

“ I remember the mail car that came up to Lamesa daily from Big Spring. And naturally it had to go back daily or else it wouldn't be there to come up again the next day. Be that as it may, besides hauling mail it also hauled passengers when there were any who wanted to be hauled. It was a seven-passenger car. And by placing a board across the jump seats, it could carry nine passengers with ease, all of them inside the car.
And what are jump seats? Big cars had a lot of room between the front seat and the back seat, somewhat like your living room at home. ”

“ Much of the mail moved by the railways is carried in cars especially equipped as traveling post offices in order that it may be accompanied by postal clerks who perform, on the journey, precisely the labor which they would otherwise perform in local post offices. Cars so used can be but lightly loaded and are costly to supply, to equip, to maintain and to move. ”

“ The cars furnished the Post Office Department and those furnished the express companies differ very materially. The former are built according to specifications furnished by the Department, and are fully equipped with letter cases, paper racks, drawers, and lockers for registered mail and supplies, and all of the equipment necessary for the distribution of mail en route. The cars furnished the express companies have very little, if any, interior furnishings, and are more like the cars used for the transportation of baggage. In both cases the cars used are owned by the railroad company. ”

“ In Great Britain, all regular trains carry at least one mail car free, or at a mere nominal charge, and the trunk line roads are required to turn out extra mail trains of ten cars each on demand of the postoffice authorities. For such a train the road can charge no more for the run than the average cost of an average passenger train. ”

“ In Paris, London, Berlin, the motor mail van is a common sight. It has even penetrated the interior of India, [147] where the Maharajah of Gwalior uses a specially fitted steam car for the delivery of his private mails. And, as though to show that man alone shall not profit by the new mode of locomotion, Paris owns a motor-car which conveys lost dogs from the different police-stations to the Dogs' Home! In fact, there seems to be no purpose to which a horse-drawn vehicle can be put, which either has not been, or shortly will be, invaded by the motor. ”

“ Before we deal with the mail matter, let us look at the cars and the men who occupy them. The train, as it leaves New York, is made up of five cars which are placed immediately behind the engine, and are followed by express and baggage cars and one passenger coach. The car next to the engine is devoted entirely to letter mail, and the four following it to papers and packages. The letter car is fifty feet in length, while those for the newspaper mail are ten feet longer. All are uniform in width, nine feet eight inches, and are six feet nine inches high in the clear. ”

“ This system, which was suggested by the celebrated Rowland Hill, originated at a period in English postal history when the requirements of trade and commerce demanded a revisal of the code. Perhaps no man was better qualified for the purpose than was Mr. Hill. In 1839 railroad post-offices were in use for mail-bags. Each railway company provided a car, when desired to do so by the postmaster-general, for the exclusive use of the mails. These cars were fitted up with boxes to facilitate the distribution and reception of the mails. ”

“ The section of the State statute held invalid has to do, not with individual cars, but with high speed trains of cars in operation, and it does not prescribe what the construction of mail or express cars shall be, but only that the rear car of trains made up of mail or express cars shall be equipped with a platform as prescribed, with 'exits free from obstruction.' It may be a mail car, or an express car, or a passenger coach or a caboose ”

“ A present example in the mail service, itself, is the great expense which the railways are now undergoing in substituting steel mail cars for those formerly in use. The old cars, which thus become a total loss were fully up to the most advanced standards of construction when built and they could continue for a long time to serve the purposes of the service except for the public demand for stronger cars.
[B] A car-foot mile is a unit equal to moving one foot in car length (regardless of width or height) one mile. Thus to move a car sixty feet long one mile results in sixty car-foot miles ”

“ Sometimes you brush elbows with the railroad mail service. You notice perhaps, the big heavy car up forward in the long train, with its open door and its gallows-like crane for snatching mail-bags, at cross-road stations, where the through train does not even deign to slacken speed. ”

“ Motor vehicles were accordingly introduced into the rural service in 1915 to meet this demand for greater expedition in service and the transportation of increased amounts of parcel post and mail matter on extended routes and principally from the larger cities. ”

“ Fast lines of mail steamers follow one another around the same course pursued by these floating cities, and passengers can go to or from any of these moving abodes to any part of any continent whenever they wish; so that if a dealer wishes a vehicle of special design, he can send his order by mail to any one of the six vehicle cities and have it completed by the time the floating city arrives at his port. If the community receiving the order cannot complete the work in time, the order is sent with one of the mail steamers to the next vehicle city in line. ”

“ Occupying one end of the car are cases of pigeon-holes, or boxes, numbering from six hundred to one thousand, arranged in the shape of a horse-shoe, for the distribution of letters. These boxes are labeled with the names of the post-offices on the line of road, connecting lines, States, and prominent cities and towns throughout the country. A long, narrow aisle passes through the centre of the car, on both sides of which are racks for open sacks and pouches, into which packages of letters and pieces of other mail matter are thrown ”

“ There are no trees but the olive. No birds are singing, or we should know that summer is nigh. We stop frequently at little stations, to leave and take the mail. The letters and papers are tied up in a packet with a string, and are handed from the mail-car to a boy or a woman on hand to receive them. ”

“ Look downstairs. As your mail falls in through that slot, or is brought in by a mailman it is put through an ink-daubing apparatus—that's it, right down in front of you—which totally ruins its stamp. How about your man's photo, now?"
A good laugh rang around, and our official said:—
"Now a man sorts it according to its inscription, puts it into a canvas bag and aboard a train, or possibly an aircraft. But that bag has mail going to points a long way apart, so a man in a mail car sorts it out, so that Chicago won't find mail in its bag which should go to California." ”

“ September 16, 1784:—"Our mail diligence still continues its course with the same steadiness and punctuality. Yesterday its coachman and guard made their first appearance in Royal livery, and cut a most superior figure. It is certainly very proper that the Government carriages should be thus distinguished; such a mark of His Majesty's approbation does the contractors great honour, and it is with much pleasure we see so great a change in the conveyance of our mail—not only in its speed and safety, but in its present respectable appearance, from an old cart and a ragged boy." ”

“ The bags to be forwarded, being suspended from a projecting arm at the station, are so knocked off by a projection from the train as to fall into a net which is attached to the mail carriage, and is for the moment stretched out to receive them, while, at the same time, the bags to be left behind, being hung out from the mail carriage, are in like manner so struck off as to be caught in a net fixed at the station ”

“ The pouches and sacks into which the packages of letters and papers are deposited will be received at the next junction into a railway post-office car, sorted and forwarded in the manner described. In many cases a mail is sent across by a stage route to connect a parallel line, and thereby feeding a new section.
Mail matter is frequently received, through error, for post-offices on the line of road but just passed, or for post-offices supplied only by one railway post-office train moving in the opposite direction; to provide for such mail a pouch is left at the meeting-point of this train ”

“ The uses to which the motor vehicle has been put are legion. On railways the motor carriage is catering for local traffic. On the roads the motor omnibus is steadily increasing its numbers. Tradesmen of all sorts, and persons concerned with the distribution of commodities, find that the petrol- or steam-moved car or lorry has very decided advantages over horse traction. Our postal authorities have adopted the motor mail van. The War Office looks to the motor to solve some of its transportation difficulties. ”

“ The coach, replaced in 1905 by a motor van, travelled by night, and reached Brighton in time for the first delivery.' The experiment proving successful, other coach and motor services were started at different dates between London and other places in the provinces, the mail services performed by motor vans amounting in 1906 to nearly forty. Nearly 11% millions of parcels were conveyed by the post office in 1900-1901 without passing over a railway. ”

“ It is not impossible that the underground passages, containing the electric cables and heating-pipes, will be expanded, and that through them small automatic wagons will carry the food directly into the residences upon an order by telephone, similar to the underground, electric mail-carriers that have been planned, for transporting the mail from one post-office to another in the large cities. ”

“ There are two similar trains, leaving New York at 4.35 A.M., and at 10.30 A.M., with a less number of cars; and three moving in the opposite direction. There are twenty mail-cars on this line, each interior is sixty feet in length, and the exterior, as already mentioned, painted white, and bearing the coat-of-arms of some State and the name of its past or present governor. Each car is devoted to a special purpose: the distribution of letters and local, or "way," work; the distribution of paper mail ”

“ If he travels, as he often does in his own elegant private car, his mail is delivered at important stations all along the road. Being in constant communication with all departments of the System by telegraph, telephone, or messenger, his mail is forwarded to him promptly at all railroad stations named for its delivery, is examined and replied to as readily as if in his main office in New York City, for he has an office, desk, and all needed facilities in his car for sending out telegrams, letters, or messages from the different stations by the way. ”

“ Car loads of perishable fruits and the like were rotting in the yards, men were beaten, engines crippled, orders mixed up, crown sheets burned and cars smashed on open switches.
The Limited Mail was annulled as a regular train, and Griscom and Ralph and all other passenger employes placed on the irregular list. One day a man would take out the Mail, the next day he would be running freight empties to the city. ”

“ How closely everything is packed, and all available space utilized, may be imagined when it is stated that for this newspaper mail ninety-five pouches are hung in the section, and that there is still sufficient room for the storage of pouches locked up and ready for delivery, and also for the sealed registered mail. A separation of the California mail is also made in this car, so that when it reaches Chicago the pouches into which the matter is placed are transferred without delay, thus saving twenty-four hours on the time to the Pacific Coast, not by any means an unimportant accomplishment. ”