Sending Mail

[Peggy]

I realize sending post cards has pretty much gone the way of dinosaurs, but I think I read somewhere that postcards can be purchased on board?

Can they be mailed from the train?

I send postcards to all my grandnieces/nephew they love getting mail, and I'm looking forward to spending some of my LD train ride writing postcards to them.

I'm just hoping they can be sent along the way instead of when I get where I'm going.

 

[Ryan]

Not really, sorry. I don't recall there being post cards available for purchase either, but I may have just missed them.

 

[CHamilton]

I haven't see any post cards in many years. Here's a thread from 2010. http://discuss.amtraktrains.com/index.php?/topic/33712-amtrak-postcards/

One occasionally sees postcards in stations. I got some in Saratoga Springs a couple of months ago.

 

[Peggy]

Oh duh. I didn't even think about searching for a previous thread.. My bad.

Guess I'm just so used to just not being able to find them hardly at all anymore that I didn't think about there being a post on them.

It's a shame. In this digital age folks forget how excited little kids get over real live mail.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

My teenaged daughter bought post cards at the skydeck in the Willis (sears) tower. When we got back to the lounge, she wrote cards to her friends. Then we went looking for stamps and found we had to go across the street to the CVS. Then found a mailbox on the way back to CUS.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

This makes me think back to the halcyon days when you could send a Western Union wire from the train. I imagine in most cases the Telegram was simply dropped at the next stopped and keyed into the Western Union system. Likewise a Telegram could be sent to a person on a train provided the sender had information on which train the recipient was on.

 

[SarahZ]

I still send postcards to my nieces and some of my friends when we go on vacation. I guess we're old enough to still appreciate getting postcards, and my nieces are really young and enjoy getting their own mail. I also buy postcards as souvenirs and keep them with our brochures, museum passes, plane/train tickets, etc.

 

[zephyr17]

You can't generally can't mail stuff from the train. At a very few stations there are mailboxes available that you can get to during stops. The only one I can think of offhand is Havre, MT, where there is a mailbox at the east end of the platform.

 

[Peggy]

I always carry stamps with me so I won't have to hunt them down in a strange place, so I will just hope for the best and be ready if I find postcards. Would be great if I find some at the Fort Worth station and just have them ready to go in case I score a mailbox at any of the stops before Chicago.

Just an FYI: folks are always shocked when I tell them I always get my stamps through the Wells Fargo bank ATMs, seems to be a little known fact that you can buy them there. Well, at least in Texas you can...

 

[the_traveler]

I have no trouble finding the nearest Post Office. My bedroom is literally 6" from the PO. (My bedroom wall and the PO share a common wall in the same building.)

 

[billthebarn]

Sure doesn't sound like the penthouse suite! LOL!

 

[Shawn Ryu]

I once bought a postcard from a local lady somewhere in Colorado while travelling on Southwest Chief. Forgot the stop's name. But they were selling local merchandise. Beautiful little town.

She sent it to my mom back home for me since mailbox wasnt nearby. Pretty cool people.

 

[the_traveler]

The Penthouse Suite has it's own RPO!

 

[rickycourtney]

Interestingly I was looking in the Service Standards Manual and under the Pre-Departure Responsibilities for the SCA's one of the things they are supposed to put into each room is "One Amtrak postcard (when available)".

I've never received one of these postcards. Has anyone else?

 

[amtrakwolverine]

The manual could be out dated a bit or they just don't remove the no longer required duties.

 

[jphjaxfl]

This makes me think back to the halcyon days when you could send a Western Union wire from the train. I imagine in most cases the Telegram was simply dropped at the next stopped and keyed into the Western Union system. Likewise a Telegram could be sent to a person on a train provided the sender had information on which train the recipient was on.

They could actually send a telegram from most trains. There telegraph machine was in the baggage car. Once as a kid traveling on the MoPac Hot Springs Special between Hot Springs AR and Litte Rock and on to Memphis, the conductor took me into the baggage car and let me watch him send a telegram to Memphis to let the agent at Union Station know about the numbers of passengers connecting to L&N's Hummingbird and Southern's Tennessean which departed 15 min after MoPac train #220 arrived.

What was also neat was sending a letter or a post card from the Railway Post Office car on the train you were riding. At a longer stop you could get off, walk down to the head end and mail your letter or post card in the mailbox slot that all RPOs had. The item would have the RPO's post mark on the cancellation.

 

[trainman74]

Interestingly I was looking in the Service Standards Manual and under the Pre-Departure Responsibilities for the SCA's one of the things they are supposed to put into each room is "One Amtrak postcard (when available)".
I've never received one of these postcards. Has anyone else?

Back in the day, circa 1990, there was an Amtrak "First Class" stationery kit that got placed in every room, which included four Amtrak picture postcards (different designs). I had one, but don't know what happened to it.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

This makes me think back to the halcyon days when you could send a Western Union wire from the train. I imagine in most cases the Telegram was simply dropped at the next stopped and keyed into the Western Union system. Likewise a Telegram could be sent to a person on a train provided the sender had information on which train the recipient was on.

They could actually send a telegram from most trains. There telegraph machine was in the baggage car. Once as a kid traveling on the MoPac Hot Springs Special between Hot Springs AR and Litte Rock and on to Memphis, the conductor took me into the baggage car and let me watch him send a telegram to Memphis to let the agent at Union Station know about the numbers of passengers connecting to L&N's Hummingbird and Southern's Tennessean which departed 15 min after MoPac train #220 arrived.

What was also neat was sending a letter or a post card from the Railway Post Office car on the train you were riding. At a longer stop you could get off, walk down to the head end and mail your letter or post card in the mailbox slot that all RPOs had. The item would have the RPO's post mark on the cancellation.

This brings back memories of the days we lived in Chattanooga ,my sister lived in Dallas, and we changed trains in Memphis And there were two different stations in Memphis..

 

[railiner]

This makes me think back to the halcyon days when you could send a Western Union wire from the train. I imagine in most cases the Telegram was simply dropped at the next stopped and keyed into the Western Union system. Likewise a Telegram could be sent to a person on a train provided the sender had information on which train the recipient was on.

They could actually send a telegram from most trains. There telegraph machine was in the baggage car. Once as a kid traveling on the MoPac Hot Springs Special between Hot Springs AR and Litte Rock and on to Memphis, the conductor took me into the baggage car and let me watch him send a telegram to Memphis to let the agent at Union Station know about the numbers of passengers connecting to L&N's Hummingbird and Southern's Tennessean which departed 15 min after MoPac train #220 arrived.

What was also neat was sending a letter or a post card from the Railway Post Office car on the train you were riding. At a longer stop you could get off, walk down to the head end and mail your letter or post card in the mailbox slot that all RPOs had. The item would have the RPO's post mark on the cancellation.

I don't see how they could actually send a telegram from a moving train with the technology of that era.....what you might have seen was someone typing a telegram on a typewriter, to be put off at the next station to then be wired ahead....

I too remember the mail slots in the RPO's.....the last ones were the New York and Washington RPO's, operated by Conrail until 1977. They even had a slot in the wall in Penn Station, New York for the deposit of "Train Mail"......

 

[jphjaxfl]

This makes me think back to the halcyon days when you could send a Western Union wire from the train. I imagine in most cases the Telegram was simply dropped at the next stopped and keyed into the Western Union system. Likewise a Telegram could be sent to a person on a train provided the sender had information on which train the recipient was on.

They could actually send a telegram from most trains. There telegraph machine was in the baggage car. Once as a kid traveling on the MoPac Hot Springs Special between Hot Springs AR and Litte Rock and on to Memphis, the conductor took me into the baggage car and let me watch him send a telegram to Memphis to let the agent at Union Station know about the numbers of passengers connecting to L&N's Hummingbird and Southern's Tennessean which departed 15 min after MoPac train #220 arrived.

What was also neat was sending a letter or a post card from the Railway Post Office car on the train you were riding. At a longer stop you could get off, walk down to the head end and mail your letter or post card in the mailbox slot that all RPOs had. The item would have the RPO's post mark on the cancellation.

I don't see how they could actually send a telegram from a moving train with the technology of that era.....what you might have seen was someone typing a telegram on a typewriter, to be put off at the next station to then be wired ahead....

I too remember the mail slots in the RPO's.....the last ones were the New York and Washington RPO's, operated by Conrail until 1977. They even had a slot in the wall in Penn Station, New York for the deposit of "Train Mail"......

Telegraph lines parallelled all the railroads in the country at one time.

 

[xyzzy]

Western Union wires were indeed placed on lineside poles, but that doesn't mean there was ever a direct connection between the train and the poles. In theory a connection was possible with induction technology that the PRR did deploy in some places. But cutting a telegram on a blank or a perforated paper tape that was handed to the agent at the next station stop was more likely.

Anyone could wire a passenger en route by sending a telegram to the person addressed "in care of conductor train [so-and-so] at [location so-and-so]". The agent would hand the telegram to the conductor, typically for a passenger in a Pullman. Western Union disclaimed responsibility for delivering those types of telegrams, and obviously they had to be sent sufficiently far in advance -- and the sender had to know at which stations the train would stop, what specific train the addressee was riding, etc.

Most trains used either Memphis Central Station or Memphis Union Station. However, during a period in the mid-1960s when Union Station was closed, Southern reverted to their old Memphis and Charleston station and Missouri Pacific also used an alternate.

 

[railiner]

In some old movies, you see them string a wire from a standing train to an overhead Western Union wire to send an emergency telegraph.....

I don't think induction technology could reliably reach from a moving train to an overhead telegraph wire. You would need to have the signals embedded into the rails like cab signals, somehow.....possibly on the busy NEC, but not likely in rural Arkansas.......

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

Somewhat along these lines lounge cars usually had a writing desk with stationery provided with either the railroad name or sometimes even the train name on it. I, myself,have several souvenirs of this.

Also, lounge cars and pullman cars usually provided copies of the Hotel Redbook and the Official Railway Guide.

 

[xyzzy]

PRR installed induction technology on its busiest routes in the northeast. If it could handle telephone (which it did), it could handle telegraph too. Of course, it would be simpler just to call Western Union over the induction phone and submit the telegram verbally. In any event, this technology was expensive and certainly not installed in the rural south or west.

 

[railiner]

PRR installed induction technology on its busiest routes in the northeast. If it could handle telephone (which it did), it could handle telegraph too. Of course, it would be simpler just to call Western Union over the induction phone and submit the telegram verbally. In any event, this technology was expensive and certainly not installed in the rural south or west.

So were those public telephone booths on the Metroliner's, (and earlier on the Congressional's), inductive technology, or were they mobile radiotelephones?

I remember making a call from a Metroliner on my first ride (".....Guess where I'm calling you from....")