Dominion Atlantic Railway Digital Preservation Initiative - Wiki
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Railway Post Office
Railway Post Office (RPO)
Railway postal service was an important revenue generator which helped offset any marginal revenues on passenger train service and also ensured a regular schedule of trains to ensure daily mail service to communities served by the railway. The mail was picked and delivered at each station along the route and then sorted in the specially built mail cars. The postage stamps were "franked" with "hammers", each mail clerk having their own.
The study of RPO hammers is an extensive one and complete books from established authorities on RPOs, Lionel Gillam's book "A History of Canadian RPOs" and Ross Gray's "Catalogue of Canadian Railway Post Office Cancellatios", indicate that older hammers from railway mergers and takeovers continued to be used despite changes in railway ownership.[1]
Operational Appearances
From the daily notes of George Parks it is noted that No. 3708 was west bound along with sister mail car No. 3711 leaving the D.A.R. at Truro on August 17, 1956 as a result of the new Evangeline Dayliner service taking over mail duties.[2]
Gallery
DAR Mail Car No. 3708 in Kentville in 1943.
DAR Mail Car No. 3711 in Halifax in 1939.
