December 16, 1950 marked the beginning of the Waco-Eastland Highway Mail Service. It replaced the mail service on the suspended Doodlebug rail car.
The modified bus was essentially a post office on wheels. As the bus made its route, employees would pick up mail in one city and start sorting the letters and packages as the bus continued to the next city. When they got to the next destination, they would drop off the sorted mail sack for that city, would pick up a new mail sack and the sorting would start all over again. Dublin must have had two of these Star Routes over the years. One was the Waco-Eastland route. I have been told, Dublin also had a bus that went from Fort Worth to Brownwood. According to Wade Cowan, Brown Gering who lived on Grafton Street rode one of those. He would hop on the bus here in Dublin, would ride the bus to Brownwood and back sorting mail all the way, then the bus would drop him off at his home on Grafton St.
These buses were configured to be exactly like the postal rail cars on passenger trains. This made it easier for post office employees to switch over from a rail car to a bus. After World War II there was a lot of this switching. With more people using automobiles instead of trains, as many as 20 passenger trains per month were being discontinued in 1960-1963. Capacity for these buses was 175 mail sacks. According to the Dublin Progress December 22, 1950, “Of special value to the rural areas served, the highway service was able to transport baby chicks. The coach had been provided with a fan to keep the air circulating on the rear section where the crates of chicks would be stacked.” These highway mail services could service 25 towns along the way.
The highway post offices were built to government specifications at a cost of $18,000. Some buses were owned by the government. Others were privately owned and operated under contract, according to the highway post office web site.
Ordinarily a round trip for these buses was 300 miles or less. That allowed for servicing of the bus in one place. They could be gassed up for a 150 mile trip, refueled and then return. Otherwise they would have to make multiple stops along the way.
At that time, these were only used when railroad facilities were non-existent or inadequate. The post office started using this mail service here, when the MKT Doodlebug rail car stopped running.
These post offices on wheels were brought to an end when the post office started a regional concept. After that, mail was sent to a central location and it was sorted by high-speed machines. The last bus ran in 1974.
On another note, do you have a Dublin phone book from the 1920s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s? We would like to add it to our collection. Bring it by the museum any afternoon to make a donation.