On history of railway mail in Western Siberia (end of 19th - mid 20th centuries)

In the second half of the 19th century the development of rail transport in theRussian Empire caused changes in the transporting, sorting and delivering mail. The speed of mail transportation by rail, the accuracy ofthe train, the best safety of postal items in the way, the ability to produce an analysis of correspondence on the road - all had a greatinfluence on the nature of postal affairs and the development of postal service. In 1891 the Trans-Siberian Railway was laid. It facilitatedthe delivery of mail to Siberia and back, increased the speed of getting mail. Posts were transported in wagons, intended not onlyfor transporting mail, but also for processing and exchange of correspondence during the journey. In the 1860s-1900s mail cars werebuilt mainly as triaxial, later - as tetraaxial ones. There were a small number of biaxial mail cars, usually converted from passenger cars.For directions with the insignificant volume of postal traffic they built hybrid cars, in which one part was given for mail and the other -for passengers or luggage. By 1902 Siberian Railway had 30 eight-wheel cars. The main routes of mail cars had serial numbers. Forwardand reverse routes were given odd and even numbers respectively. In 1913 the total length of the postal railway in Russia amounted to58 000 km. This created favourable conditions for mail transportation and for further development of railway post. After the Revolution,the railway post office, like the rest of the communications industry, as well as transport infrastructure, was in a bad condition. The parkof mail cars declined, passenger cars and wagons were adapted for postal purposes. The system of postal carriages in Soviet Russia didnot differ from the pre-revolutionary one. All railway lines were divided into sections, called mail cars routes. Car fleet serving the Siberianline was formed from the parks of Siberian and Ural districts, as well as Irkutsk and Moscow. The resumption of building of passengerand mail cars belongs to 1925. During the industrialization of the country powerful car-building factories were created, whichprovided a significant increase and a qualitative renewal of the rolling stock. In the pre-war five-years a pilot building of all-metal passengercars began. However, since the communications industry, along with light industry, service industry, etc., was referred to thesecondary areas and funded as a residual, the modernization of railway mail in the reporting period was delayed. Thus, even by mid1930s at the height of industrialization, Western Siberia post-office had only 54 postal cars for mail transportation by railway, their qualityleft much to be desired, and the fleet quickly worn out.

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