On Track: The Railway Mail Service in Canada

T.D. Regehr is a history professor at the University of Saskatchewan and
author of The Beauharnois Scandal: A Story of Entrepreneurship and
Politics.

This book uses a social-historical perspective to tell the story of
Canadian transportation by train. It draws extensively on archival
documents, official reports, memoirs, the personal recollections of 60
former railway mail clerks who were interviewed for the project, and
various official and unofficial histories.

The book is divided into four sections. The first provides a listing of
chronological highlights in the history of the service, which operated
in Canada from 1854 to 1971. The second (and most detailed) section
deals with the on-track operations of the service. The third section,
based mainly on recorded interviews of former mail clerks, describes the
nature of the work done and the people who did it. The last section
focuses on the cancellation stamps used by railway clerks, and will be
of particular interest to philatelists.

This combined picture and history book is not an exhaustive history of
the service, and generally emphasizes description over analysis. The
photographic reproductions are excellent. On Track provides a permanent
record of a special exhibition prepared by the National Postal Museum to
honor the work of Canadian Railway Mail Service clerks and employees.
The main purpose of both the exhibit and the book was to provide a
vibrant and animated picture of a largely forgotten service.