Bring Back the Railroad Post Office

[John WR]

Choo-Choo Pete

But...You could deduct the postal expense to the IRS in the next year's tax return!  

If I buy an Amtrak ticket to hand deliver my tax return in person do you think the cost of the ticket will be deductible too?

[greyhounds]

John WR

If I buy an Amtrak ticket to hand deliver my tax return in person do you think the cost of the ticket will be deductible too?

I think you would get by with it.

Me, on the other hand, I'm flagged as having the wrong politics.  I'd get a registered letter demanding payment.

[zugmann]

greyhounds

John WR

If I buy an Amtrak ticket to hand deliver my tax return in person do you think the cost of the ticket will be deductible too?

I think you would get by with it.

Me, on the other hand, I'm flagged as having the wrong politics.  I'd get a registered letter demanding payment.

Someone have a tiny violin?

[Deggesty]

How about a towel?

[Murphy Siding]

    Yes-  I'd like to buy a vowel.  How 'bout a *V*?

[Expressman's Kid]

henry6:

Your observations and comments are well expressed and germane.  DHL stopped US domestic operations in 2009.  DHL closed their Wilmington, Ohio hub and terminated 7,000 jobs.  DHL now only processes international shipments.

 

Murphy Siding is also correct:  “The reason the mail came off trains, was because a more efficient way was found to haul and sort mail.”

 

MP173: One of those unnamed trains that you refer to is the one in my signature line.  Pennsylvania Railroad train #99 left Pittsburgh, PA around 5 PM on the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, Chicago line and arrived in Chicago around 5 AM the next day.  In the late 1950s it usually consisted of EMD A-B-A units pulling one or two decrepit coaches,  an RPO, 6-8 sealed mail cars, one working Railway Express Agency car with a messenger, and 6-8 sealed Express cars.

 

Until about 1962, in Massillon, Ohio on a Sunday, on the Pennsylvania Railroad main line from New York to Chicago you could deposit a 4 cent first class letter at 6 PM in a track side mailbox at the Pennsy Depot.  About 7 PM, East bound Train #22, the Manhattan Limited, would stop on its way from Chicago and a RPO clerk would pick up the letter.  About 8 AM the next morning, the letter 548.8 rail miles later would be in New York City.  If the letter was for a NYC address it would be delivered no later than 4 PM.  There was twice a day service then. 

 

So a letter could be mailed in Massillon, Ohio on a Sunday evening and be in NYC in 13 hours and delivered within another 8 hours for a total of 21 hours at the maximum.  Today, that same letter deposited at the Massillon Post Office on Sunday will be delivered in NYC Wednesday or Thursday.

 

In 1940, my dad had a part-time job working for a private contractor to transfer mail from the Massillon Post Office to the B&O and Pennsy Depots.  Waiting for the trains to arrive (usually late) he made friends with the Express personnel also waiting and when an opening occurred he was hired by Railway Express Agency.  He worked for them and REA until the Massillon and Canton Offices were closed in 1967 because there were no more passenger trains to work.

 

[Expressman's Kid]

For some reason my Signature line did not post.:

"Mom!  99 is blowing for 16th Street.  Dad will be home soon."