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A Travelling Post Office (TPO) is a type of mail train where the post is sorted en-route. TPO is a UK term. In the USA, the equivalent is Railway Post Office (RPO).
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Carriage of mail by train
Following an agreement in 1830, made between the General Post Office and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR), mail had been carried by train in Great Britain, between Liverpool and Manchester, via the L&MR.[1] The passing of the Railways (Conveyance of Mails) Act 1838 required railway companies to carry mail, by ordinary or special trains, as required by the Post Master General; however this act did not set the charges for such services.[1]
These special trains eventually became Travelling Post Offices (TPOs). TPOs were employed in many British Commonwealth countries;[2] and the Army Post Office had its own TPOs.
TPOs were equipped with letter boxes so that mail could be posted whilst the train stood at a station. The post-marks from TPOs are valued by philatelists.
History
Mail was first sorted on a moving train in January 1838, in a converted horse-box, on England's Grand Junction Railway. It was carried out at the suggestion of Frederick Karstadt, a General Post Office surveyor.[3] Karstadt's son was one of two mail clerks who did the sorting.[4] In 1845 the service was extended via Derby to Newcastle upon Tyne by the Midland Railway; and soon after reached Scotland.[5]
The first special postal train was operated by the Great Western Railway between London and Bristol. The inaugural train ran on 1 February 1855, leaving Paddington station at 20:46, and arriving at Bristol at 00:30. In 1866, apparatus for picking up and setting down mailbags without stopping was installed at Slough and Maidenhead.
Post-privatisation of British Rail
After the privatisation of British Rail in the mid 1990s, British TPOs were operated most recently by Rail Express Systems, and their successor EWS, later renamed DB Schenker Rail (UK). On 9 January 2004 Royal Mail decided to suspend transporting mail by rail. However, Royal Mail reversed this decision over the Christmas season that year; and began operating some TPO trains with EWS's competitor FirstGBRf, then known as GB Railfreight. In 2009 the contract for the mail trains reverted to DB rail.
TPO vehicles
TPOs are formed of several different types of vehicle:
- Post Office Sorting Van
- Post Office Stowage Van
- Brake Post Office Stowage Van
- Courier Vehicle
- Propelling Control Vehicle
- Brake Guard
- General Utility Van
See also
- Great Central Steam Railway - where the Travelling Post Office and Mail Exchange on the Move is recreated
- Great Train Robbery (1963) in which £2.3 million was stolen from a Glasgow to London TPO train
- Night Mail - Film and Poem about Travelling Post Office
- Railways (Conveyance of Mails) Act 1838
- Railway post office - The term for cars in North American use that served similar functions.
- SNCF TGV La Poste - French Post Office dedicated TGV sets.
- British Rail Class 325, Royal Mail EMUs used in Britain.
- London Post Office Railway, which Royal Mail used to transport mail across London on private underground tracks
References
- ^ a b Simmons, Jack; Biddle, Gordon (1997). The Oxford Companion to British Railway History From 1603 to the 1990s (1st Ed. ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-211697-5. Pp 303-304.
- ^ Poole, L.G. (1969). "The Travelling Post Offices of Victoria: 1865 - 1912", In: Australian Railway Historical Society Bulletin, June, 1969, Pp127-139.
- ^ White, John H., Jr. (1978). The American Railroad Passenger Car. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 473. ISBN 0-8018-1965-2.
- ^ Johnson, Peter. (1985). The British Travelling Post Office. Surrey: Ian Allan Publishing. p. 13. ISBN 0-711-01459-0.
- ^ Billson, P., (1996) Derby and the Midland Railway Derby: Breedon Books
External links
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