Geneva To Leicester NY - Very Special Delivery

Here's a little cover sent special delivery from Geneva to Leicester NY, both just south of Rochester. Sent April 16, 1936.



The back shows two RPO cancels for two different railroads, Canan & Wmspt. (Williamsport?) and N.Y & Buffalo.



But looking at a map, these two towns can't be more than fifty miles or 80 km apart. Don't know the scale of this map. Leicester is circled on the left, Geneva on the right.



So why would it take two railroads to get this letter from A to B? Doesn't seem very efficient.

I can't speak for the efficiency in method of delivery back in the 1930s but I can tell you that the RPO markings are:

Canandaigua (NY) & Williamsport (PA) RPO; and
Buffalo (NY) & New York (NY) RPO

The distance today between Geneva, NY and Leicester, NY is 55.4 miles (via main highways that weren't in existence back in the 1930s).

According to this historical piece, "a dozen trains left Canandaigua on the two New York Central Lines that converged (t)here." which could document the reason why the Buffalo & NY RPO was involved in the transportation of this piece of mail:

This is not about the cover specifically, but about the efficiency of delivery.

I live in a rural area. If I mail a letter to a town 24 miles to the west of me, the letter goes first to Augusta, Georgia, then to Macon, Georgia, and finally from Macon to the town in question.

60 miles to Augusta, 120 miles Augusta to Macon, and then about 40 miles from Macon to the destination. At least two days to get there. I can drive the distance in 30 minutes.

Thanks for the info wt1. Will be included on the page.
Rohumpy. I understand. 50 miles as the crow flies, but crows don't deliver mail.

Williamsport indeed! I know exactly where it was canceled at as I used to terry around that place as a youngster. I don't think the station is still there though. What a wonderful piece of my local history! Please take good care of her James (Like I had to ask right?- lol!)


EDIT:
Actually after a quick re-read I don't believe it was actually canceled in Williamsport(The locals call it Billtown)but rather on the same rail line in N.Y. as it would have had to go pretty far South before heading to it's destination. Cheers!

My grandfather was a station master for the DL&W (Delaware, Lackawana and Western) near Corning NY, and we had a cottage on Keuka Lake. Also my other grandfather grew up in the finger lakes region (family grew grapes for the local wineries including Taylor Winery in Hammondsport). So, I am familiar with this area!

Hopefully I can add some more insight here.

From the early development of the railroads to the beginning of World War II, it was a favorite pastime of those living particularly in the Boston, New Haven, New York City area to spend a weekend on excursions to the Canandaigua and finger lakes regions. Most if not all railroads had such excursions.

There were also many very small, mostly local industrial railroads which were created to carry merchandise from the Erie canal to various NY and PA distribution towns, hence that is why you see so many really small short line railroads in upstate New York. Many of these small rr's leased lines from the major railroads so they could provide excursions to the outlying area which they served, such as Williamsport.

The major lines were leased mostly from the New York Central, Erie, and DL&W rr's. The one I remember my grandfather talking about the most (because that is the one they used) was the Canandaigua and Corning railroad which I believe later was changed to the Canandaigua and Elmira RR. Being a very heavy excursion area, I would imagine lots of mail originated in this area.

So my best educated guess as to the delivery of this letter would be as follows (with suppositions as indicated):

1. Since the NYC RR served all of this area during that time, I would suppose that all of the mail service was on NYC RR leased lines.
2. Supposition - Canandaigua-Williamsport RR leased lines going north/south with a spur to Geneva (17 miles to the east), but did not have a leased line to Leicester
3. The New York and Buffalo RR had leased line to Leicester or general vicinity. Whether they had leased line to Canandaigua I don't know.

So, letter was placed on Canandaigua-Williamsport RR, probably in Geneva, and cancelled accordingly with that RR cancellation. Someplace this rr crossed leased line of the NY-Buffalo RR where the letter was transfered to the NY-Buffalo rr, and that rr placed their cancellation on it. The letter was then sent to its destination.

I would not be surprised if the letter went by railroad to Geneseo and by ground from there to Leicester.

All of this, of course, is best guess based on my limited knowledge of the railroads in the area. I could be 100% correct - I could be 100% wrong.

Well that's a 100% more than I came up with ncbuckeye.
Thanks all for your input. This should make an interesting page.