Postal History

The Iraq Directory, a general and commercial Directory of Iraq with a supplement for the neighboring countries, issue of 1936, gives following reference to the Railway Post letters:

Ordinary letters or postcards may be handed in at most railway stations in Iraq to be forwarded by the first available passenger train to other railway stations or to other Post Offices in Iraq for delivery or onward transmission by post to any foreign country.

This service affords a convenient means of dispatching letters from places situated at some distance from a Post Office or for forwarding letters at time when local Post Offices are closed.

The charges on railway Post letters are as follows:

1. Inland Service: The ordinary Inland postage for a letter or postcard as the case may be plus a special railway fee of 10 files.

2. Foreign Service: The ordinary foreign postage for a letter or postcard as the case may be plus a special railway fee of 10 files. Railway post letters and postcards may also be posited for transmission by air on payment of the air mail fee in addition to the postage and railway fee.

The limit of weight for a railway post letter is 80 grams.

Full particulars of this service may be obtained at any Post Office or Railway Station.

In 1930, 55 Railway stations and the GPO in Baghdad were authorised to accept such mail. Most cancelled by the 31 mm octagonal dark blue or violet station handstamp.

In a Post Office guide (in Arab Language, date of the guide is unknown to me) is mentioned:
After the 1932 change of currency following stations and halts were permitted to accept telegrams and train letters. Unfortunately, this list did not appear in the English version.
Due to that I assume the names of the stations are written by a different name caused by phonetic translation from Arab into English.
Also some stations which were listed in the earlier guide appear to have omitted, some others were added.