A catcher pouch is a mail bag that can be used in conjunction with a mail hook to "catch" mail awaiting pickup from a moving train. Catcher pouches were most often used by railway post offices in the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century.[1] Its use was limited to exchanges onto moving trains. The specially constructed catcher pouch was grabbed by the catcher mechanism in the passing railway car[2] and the catcher pouch would release from the holding rings on the mail crane.[3][4] This technique was known as "mail on the fly". Starting in the 1870s the use of this technique of the Railway Mail Service was an important issue in the United States. It was a popular technique and the backbone of the United States Postal Service through the 1930s.[5][A]
- ^ Romanski, Fred J. (Fall 2005). "The "Fast Mail": A History of the U.S. Railway Mail Service"". Prologue Magazine. Smithsonian National Postal Museum: 1–6.
- ^ Melius p. 40
- ^ Scheer, Frank. "Railway Post Office Lingo". Guide and Glossary of Terms for Mobile Unit Substitutes, Railway Mail Service Library. Eastern Illinois University. Retrieved August 16, 2012.
- ^ Cushing, Marshall Henry (1892). Story of our post office: the greatest government department in all its phases (Google eBooks). Boston, Massachusetts: A.M. Thayer. p. 116. Retrieved August 15, 2012.
fourth kind of mail bag, the catcher pouch.
- ^ Pope, Nancy (December 2007). "Railway Mail Crane". Former Object of the Month. National Postal Museum, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved August 16, 2012.
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