Design of this stamp is a railroad mail car, in which manual sorting took place during the long runs. Distinctive cancellations were used for those envelopes and packages that actually were postmarked on the trains. The Railway Mail Service was active through the 1980's, when the final car was retired from the Washington-New York run. Today's automated sorting processes are much faster than the rail service. This stamp met the single-piece rate for first class mailings presorted to either the three- or five-digit ZIP code.