Railroad Cancellations Marks from Railroad Post Offices

The railroad post offices brought faster service to much of Wisconsin. Instead of days, some times letters arrived overnight--or even the same day. Both hand stamps and fancy cancels were used by railroad post offices. In many cases, the fancy cancel "killers", which were hand-carved by postal employees, indicated the direction of the train.

This is an 1868 train schedule for the Rail Post Office in operation between Racine, WI, and Port Byron, IL.

This postmark from the Racine, WI to Rock Island, IL Railroad Post Office shows (with the fancy cancel "E") that the train was eastbound.