Introduction
Railway mail can be defined as the study of postmarks or postal markings about mail operations made by railroad. This study can be decomposed into three parts: travelling offices, conveyors and station offices.
Travelling offices
A travelling office is a special office in a railway carriage whose function is to sort and control postal correspondences which transit through it. For that purpose, a travelling office has postmarks which allow to cancel postage stamps, in particular. But a travelling office is not a real post office in the sense that it does not have revenue and it is not open to the public.
Conveyors
Conveyors, with a 2nd class compartment in trains, had to hold in safekeeping postal correspondences which have been given to them. Conveyors did no work on these correspondences. Furthermore, they directly received mail coming from travelers or from persons on platforms as well as the contents of stations mailboxes. Mail so received was treated by them and they used their date stamp to cancel postage stamps.
Station offices
Station offices are transit offices not open to the public. They are generally dependent on the full service post office of the city. Station postmarks or postal markings are stamped on the mail deposited in the mailboxes installed within the station. There are also postmarks with the words “ENTREPOT” or “TRANSBORDEMENT”.
