RPO Routes

 I have a question regarding RPO routes. 

RPO routes are the route a Railway Post Office covers between two points. These routes were set by the US Post Office, and did not necessarily correspond to a specific railroads passenger train route. 

Additionally, In the east railroads are so intertwined, and often small towns are served by multiple roads. My point is a RPO route might extend over multiple roads. 

My friend, John Barry, suggests that if, for example, three railroads are involved in carrying a RPO over a particular route, that they might each contribute one car to creat a “pool” of cars. Thus on Monday the RPO of railroad A covers that route, on Tuesday the RPO of railroad B covers the route, and so on.

I’m wondering if railroads changed RPO’s en route? This seems cumbersome because it necessitates unloading one RPO, then loading another, AND the majority of these cars were combination cars, carrying mail AND express. So there was a lot to unload.

Who can shed light on this? Did foreign road RPO’s run through? Did railroads change cars?

Well, the Railway Postal Library, Inc. is located in Boyce, VA. about six or so miles from my house. I asked them this question. The answer is, it depends.

When a RPO route covers parts of multiple roads, the initial road’s RPO will often be the only RPO on that route. At other times the various roads will create a pool of RPO’s to cover the RPO route in question.

 In those cases there will be different road’s RPO’s on different days. The RPO is not unloaded and its contents transferred however. One car is used over the entire route THAT DAY.

As for the free-lanced Atlantic Inland layout, this is an excuse to run different roads RPO’s over my layout.