Night train with postal transport

In a service order from the State Postal and Telecommunications Company (PTT) in April 1905, it was announced that a night mail train would be deployed starting that month. As early as 1844, the Postal Service had concluded a contract with the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorwegmaatschappij (HIJSM) stipulating that one parcel of mail items would be transported daily between The Hague and Amsterdam, both ways. Due to the rapid expansion of the railway network, the transport of parcels containing postal items also increased. Furthermore, due to economic growth, rapid mail processing became increasingly important. The railways, therefore, decided in collaboration with the Postal Service to put special wagons into service not only to transport mail but also to sort and stamp it. For this purpose, postmarks were used that included a railway route, such as the Amsterdam-Rotterdam railway route. Four date stamps were put into use on November 9, 1870. The characters were: 1, 2, 3, and 4, and A, B, C, and D, 'to indicate the train on which conductors are on duty at the Hollandsche Spoorweg'. They made use of trains that ran for passenger transport during normal service. Due to the increase in the volume of mail items and to better meet the demands of mail senders and recipients, it was decided to operate night mail trains. The first night mail train was deployed on the Amsterdam-Rotterdam route effective April 1, 1905. Mail was also sorted and stamped on these trains. To indicate that the night mail train was to be used, the stamps at the post offices located along the railway line were marked with a so-called night hour character. This character consisted of the hours 12-2 with the letter V, representing the night from 12 to 2 o'clock. Mail items were stamped with this character before being handed over to the staff on duty in the train. When the train returned, the character 2-6 V was used, representing the night from 2 to 6 in the morning. Night hour characters were used in the large circular stamps of post offices that handed over or received correspondence from the night trains on the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Dordrecht route, both ways. From 1905 onwards, the large circular stamps were gradually replaced by so-called long-bar type wheel stamps. These stamps were also suitable for displaying night hour characters. The long-bar wheel stamps had small wheels on which the hourly divisions were marked. Thus, the night train was indicated with 12-1V. A fine example of the use of such a stamp can be seen on the postcard sent from The Hague to Velsen. This card was imprinted by a stamping machine, but incorrectly! The stamp was not touched. The dispatch date was July 14, 1911, and the card was stamped with the hour characters 9-10N, or between 21:00 and 22:00. This was noticed when the card was sorted at the post office in The Hague, where the stamp was subsequently cancelled with hand stamp number 13 with the hour character 12-1V. Upon arrival, the card was provided with an impression of the long bar stamp Velsen number 2 with the date July 15, 1911, with hour character 6-7V. The card then went along with the first mail delivery with delivery person number 3, as can be seen from the impression of delivery stamp A 3. In 1911, the Velsen post office employed five or six mail carriers with five mail deliveries a day! Now that was service. And whether the card was important? I don't know, because there is no clear message on it. Or was it for the addressee? In any case, it is a beautiful postcard with an image of Noordeinde Palace in The Hague. Without a fence and with the statue of William of Orange in its original place. The image must therefore have been created before 1883, because at that time the statue was moved backwards to make more room for traffic. It was also then that the famous chestnut tree was planted, which was given the name 'postzegelboom' (stamp tree) because this became the place where collectors could exchange, buy, or sell their stamps. Benches were placed around the trunk of the tree. The tree was restored in 1990 on behalf of the PTT. Postmarks with Night Hour characters are not very common; they are actually quite rare. So take a good look at your collection. And have you found one or more such impressions? Then report it on Postzegelblog! Happy searching!