BOWLING GREEN, KY — Some might call it a museum on rails. For others, it was a way of life that’s not likely to ever be repeated – mail picked up and delivered daily by a Rail Post Office (RPO).

RPOs have a unique history. They were strategically placed next to the engine and built with reinforced steel for good reason – accidents and train robberies.

“In the heyday of rail service where every community in American had a railway line and had multiple choices of railroad options coming and going, there were going to be accidents,” said Dorian Walker, a volunteer and co-founder of the Historic Rail Park and Train Museum in Bowling Green, KY. “It was a dangerous job for RPO clerks on that level and then also the level of the famous train robberies. Where did they want to rob the train? It wasn’t the diner. It was where the mail was.”

For the past two years, the park has been restoring a 1921 RPO which was acquired from Bluegrass Railway Museum in Versailles, KY. Volunteers have been working non-stop restoring everything from the light fixtures and wood sash windows to vertical mail bins and metal workstations. The RPO also was given a fresh new coat of paint – L&N Blue.

Starting tomorrow, the general public will get its first peek inside the restored rail car when the RPO opens in conjunction with the 150th anniversary of L&N passenger service between Louisville and Nashville.

“This is our first Post Office car and it’s such a great representation of the postal story, particular as the railroad and Post Office were partners in a very dynamic and fascinating way,” said Walker. “We have visitors from all over the world and there’s just a fascination about an RPO. I don’t know what it is. I guess you think about the mail and think about it today with the Internet and everything. The mail is still important but people realize their parents’ generation and their grandparents’ generation relied totally on the mail. You go back in time, especially to the 20s, 30s, 40s before television and this rich story about how you could have mail delivered in the same day between cities.”

Open for two years, the park and museum was developed around a 1925 passenger depot and features more than 14 interactive exhibits — each telling a different story. The museum is open six days a week, Tuesday through Sunday.

Every hour on the hour train tours are offered. A railroad conductor welcome guests “all aboard” and tells the story from a hands-on point of view. “Our earliest car is 1911 to the latest car 1953,” said Walker.

The park has teamed up with the U.S. Postal Service to offer a special postmark to mark the event. Special commemorative envelopes will also be available for sale at the park.

Mail order requests for the special postmark will be available for 30 days beginning October 27. Customers should allow at least a 2-inch by 4-inch space in the stamp area for the postmark and have postage applied to cards or letters before mailing them — inside another envelope — to the Post Office.

Send mail order requests to: Postmaster, Bowling Green Post Office, 311 E. 11th Ave., Bowling Green, KY 42101-9998.

Please Note: For broadcast quality video and audio, photo stills and other media resources, visit the USPS Newsroom at www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/welcome.htm.

An independent federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 149 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes, six days a week. It has 34,000 retail locations and relies on the sale of postage, products and services, not tax dollars, to pay for operating expenses. Named the Most Trusted Government Agency five consecutive years by the Ponemon Institute, the Postal Service has annual revenue of $75 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail.