The Impact of Train Mail

Do you remember the days before UPS and FedEx, or even before airplane mail delivery? Online shopping has become the thing, and you can have your parcel delivered to your doorstep in two days! Some of us remember when all mail came by train (no, I am not going back to Pony Express). One of our readers was remembering when their family received walnuts and fruit from relatives in states where those items were for the picking. These arrived by train, and that individual’s family lived close to a train station in a little community. The train would stop at that depot and set off the packages. I assume the mail was delivered at the same time. Am I correct in remembering poles along the track at the depots that allowed the engineer or other train personnel to hook mail bags on a hook located on the pole without doing more than slowing down the train? I understand that orders for train crews were handled by the same method. These orders were received by telegraph and passed on to the crews by the train master using that method. Most of us have forgotten the impact trains made in early lives, but all we need to do is make note of all of the communities that were located along the railroad track.