Railway Post Offices And Their Railroad Lines

I'm trying to find information identifying the railroads specific Railway Post Offices were on. Can anyone provide printed and/or online resources that might include this information?

Example: What railroad was Cedar Rapids & Estherville RPO on?

Thanks.

Don

Is this a trick question Don ?


Peter

Don

Interesting postcard found online https://www.worthpoint.com/worthope...erville-iowa


I believe the schedule found on this link might answer your question

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthope...ts-111129399

Mobile Post office Society - https://www.eskimo.com/~rkunz/mposhome.html
Don

Thank you Gettinold and Don. Both answers very helpful. They clearly placed the example cited on the Chicago, Rock Island, & Pacific Railroad.

Joining the Mobile Post Office Society looks worth the money.

Don

Or to phrase the question differently and rhetorically: "What is the merger/consolidation history of a certain RPO line?" RPO answers often change over time.

I have found this reprint useful: "Handy Railroad Atlas of the United States, 1948" reprinted by Trains Magazine/Kalmbach Publishing Co. I don't know if it is still in print.

Yes, both it and a 1920 atlas I own list the line as the CRI&P - Chicago Rock Island & Pacific.

In my opinion the study of RPOs has a scope as large as precancels (i.e. a lifetime of study and a library of reference books). Don (the OP) has started in the best fashion, start with a single RPO and dig in from there.
Don

Thank you, John Becker, for the citation for Handy Railroad Atlas of the United States. I will find a copy.

By way of explanation, I am beginning to acquire covers with cancels for RPOs that began, ended, or began and ended in my home state of Iowa. I also hope to find the years of their operation and on what railroad lines they ran.

My interest stems from an uncle who was a railway mail clerk for many years and my own experience as a substitute railway mail clerk. I was hired as a substitute clerk for the PTS, the successor to the RMS. I worked mostly in the Council Bluffs and Omaha Burlington Station terminals, but made several trips on RPOs out of Chicago and Omaha from 1959 and the early 1960s. I transferred into the Omaha Post Office in late 1962.

Don

Don -

Seriously, you ought to consider writing about your RPO experiences. APS may be willing to provide assistance. It would be a great article for the APS magazine, and maybe more.

Thanks, oldguy, but I'm not much of a writer and that experience was over 60 years ago and the details have dimmed considerably.

I attended the APS show in Omaha last summer and I did revisit the places I worked as a PTS clerk. The Union Station has been beautifully preserved and is now a museum. Burlington Station is still much the same on the outside, but there are commercial offices in it now and the Burlington Station Terminal across the street to the west is now offices and condos. I couldn't remember what street the Council Bluffs Terminal was on and I didn't find it.

Don