The Travelling Post Office: A Comprehensive Guide

The Travelling Post Office is a unique and fascinating concept that has been around for over a century. It's a mobile postal facility that brings mail services directly to rural areas, where traditional post offices may not be readily available.

These mobile post offices are equipped with the latest technology and staffed by trained postal workers, who can handle a wide range of mail services, from sending and receiving letters and packages to providing information on postal rates and regulations. They often visit remote areas on a regular schedule, bringing mail services to people who may not have access to them otherwise.

The Travelling Post Office is particularly useful for people living in rural areas, where mail services may be limited or unreliable. It's also a convenient option for tourists and travelers who need to send or receive mail while on the go.

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The First TPOs were introduced in 1838 when an experiment was carried out on a passenger train between Liverpool and Birmingham. This experiment marked the birth of the Travelling Post Office (TPO).

A TPO consisted of one or more specially designed carriages, manned by Post Office staff, attached to a regular passenger train. These carriages were not controlled by the railway companies but by a Post Office unit in London.

By 1963, there were 49 mail trains running across the country, some with just one TPO carriage and others with up to 5. This shows how much the TPO system had expanded over the years.

TPOs were essentially Travelling Sorting Offices, not normal post offices. They had the ability to sort mail in transit for delivery to major sorting offices.

Mail sent to TPOs from Head Offices had already been postmarked at those Head Offices and showed no sign of being carried on a TPO.

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TPOs were not controlled by railway companies, but by a Post Office unit in London known as the TPO Section.

In 1838, the first TPO experiment took place on a passenger train between Liverpool and Birmingham, marking the birth of the Travelling Post Office.

TPOs consisted of specially designed carriages manned by Post Office staff, attached to regular passenger trains.

By 1963, there were 49 mail trains running across the country, with some having just one TPO carriage and others having up to 5.

Mail trains with TPO carriages ran between London and Aberdeen, London and Penzance, and other major routes.

The Apparatus was a system that allowed TPOs to pick up and drop off mail bags without stopping the train.

The Apparatus consisted of two mechanisms: one to drop off bags and another to pick up bags, with each mechanism having a corresponding part on the TPO and at the railside.

Mail bags were suspended from a bar on the TPO and caught in a railside net as the train passed, or vice versa.

This pick-up and drop procedure using the Apparatus was done at full speed, saving a considerable amount of time.

Mail transferred via the Apparatus was packed into special reinforced leather pouches to prevent damage.

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A TPO was made up of one or more Post Office Sorting Carriages.

These carriages were the backbone of the TPO, where mail was sorted and processed on the move. The Up Special TPO, for example, could consist of six Sorting Carriages.

The Sorting Carriages were often accompanied by Post Office Stowage Vans or Bag Tenders for carrying sealed bags of sorted mail. These vans played a crucial role in the TPO's operation.

The Apparatus, a mechanism designed to pick up and drop mail bags at stations, was a vital piece of equipment for TPOs. It allowed mail to be transferred at full speed, saving a considerable amount of time.

Mail transferred via the Apparatus was packed into special reinforced leather pouches to prevent damage.

A TPO, or Trailer Post Office, was a unique train that carried mail across the UK. It was made up of one or more Post Office Sorting Carriages.

The Sorting Carriages were the heart of the TPO, where mail was sorted and processed. Many TPOs also had Post Office Stowage Vans or Bag Tenders for carrying sealed bags of sorted mail.

Some TPOs ran as part of a normal passenger train, while others were made up only of Post Office vehicles. The Special TPOs, for instance, had no passenger carriages.

The Up Special TPO, which ran from Aberdeen to London, was one of the Special TPOs. It could consist of six Sorting Carriages plus eleven Stowage Vans, making it the longest TPO in the world.

The Apparatus was a game-changer for TPOs, allowing mail to be transferred at full speed without stopping the train.

Work on the Apparatus started in 1829 and continued for at least 20 years before a satisfactory method was found.

The Apparatus had two separate mechanisms for dropping off and picking up mail bags, each with a part on the TPO and a corresponding part at the railside.

Bags to be dropped off were suspended from a bar that swivelled out from the side of the coach, and caught in a railside net as the train passed.

A demonstration video on YouTube shows the Apparatus in action, with a TPO passing at speed and dropping off and picking up mail bags.

Mail transferred via the Apparatus was packed into special reinforced leather pouches to prevent damage.

The Apparatus was designed to work at full speed, resulting in a considerable saving of time.

Some early TPO postmarks were mis-sent marks, such as the one from the MIDLAND TPO DOWN, which read MISSENT-TO/MIDLAND-R-P-O DOWN.

The first TPO postmarks were applied to mail in 1848 by the Caledonian TPO, and by 1860, the North Western TPO was using its own postmarks. These early postmarks often didn't explicitly say "TPO", but they were still used to identify mail that had been sorted on a TPO.

The Glasgow & Carlisle Sorting Tender used a postmark that showed the number 159, indicating the train left Glasgow Central in the early evening. The Evening/Northern Railway postmark, on the other hand, was applied at the Inland Office in London, even though it indicated the letter was sent to the TPO to be sorted.

The North Western TPO also used various postmarks from 1862 to 1883.

Shift work on TPOs was a challenging and demanding experience for those who worked it.

A typical week for a Post Office clerk working on a TPO involved catching a passenger train to a distant location, then catching a TPO back home from the distant location at 8:30 pm.

They would arrive home at 3:30 am the next morning, and then catch another TPO to a distant location at 8:30 pm the following evening.

This grueling schedule was repeated multiple times a week, with the clerk getting some sleep at home in between trips.

Some TPOs had more than one Sorting Carriage, and depending on the size of the TPO, it could be staffed by anything from 4 to 40 Post Office clerks.

The shift pattern of a Sorting Carriage clerk was somewhat disruptive, with some clerks working a full 40 years on TPOs.

It's hard to imagine anyone working such antisocial hours for so long, but it just goes to show the dedication and commitment of those who worked on the TPOs.

The Early Years of Postmarks were marked by mis-sent marks, as seen on a 1856 letter from Bridge of Allan to Dewsbury, which was marked with the unclear postmark MISSENT-TO/MIDLAND-R-P-O DOWN.

These early mis-sent marks were used by TPOs, and one of the earliest known postmarks was from the MIDLAND TPO DOWN, Bristol to Newcastle.

TPO postmarks didn't always have the text "TPO" on them, and one frequently found postmark is that of the Glasgow & Carlisle Sorting Tender, which was used on a postcard addressed to a bank in Ashbourne and posted on 18 November 1872.

Some TPO postmarks were duplex marks, like the one on the postcard, which had the Cancellation part showing the number 159 (for Glasgow).

The Grand Northern Railway postmark, E/NR in a circle – Evening/Northern Railway, was used on a letter sent from London on 16 September 1845 to Macclesfield, and although it indicated the letter was sent to the TPO to be sorted, the mark itself was applied at the Inland Office in London.

The Caledonian TPO issued several postmarks, including one in 1860 (W638, p. 169) and another in 1867 (W642, p. 169).

The North Western TPO also issued several postmarks, including one in 1862 (W54a, p. 33), another in 1870 (W22, p. 22), and one in 1883 (W58, p. 33).

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By 1850, around 40 Post Office staff were employed on TPOs running on various lines between Perth and Exeter.

The success of the early TPOs led to a significant increase in the number of TPOs, with 200 Post Office staff working on TPOs by 1867.

There were two main types of TPOs: Night Mail and Day Mail. Night Mail TPOs carried late-collection mail from London for tomorrow's morning delivery in the provinces, and late-collection mail from the provinces for tomorrow's morning delivery in London.

Day Mail TPOs tended to deliver mail in time for afternoon deliveries. By the early 1900s, there were over 130 TPOs running across the country.

In 1968, the Post Office introduced a two-tier postal system, with first-class letters to be delivered by tomorrow's first morning post and second-class letters to be delivered later.

The Travelling Post Office (TPO) was a rail-based postal delivery service that operated in Great Britain for over 160 years. It first made its debut in 1838 after a railroad car was converted into a moving postal train.

The first train specifically designed to serve as a TPO was introduced in 1855 and initially operated by the Great Western Railway between London and Bristol. Some TPOs were attached to normal passenger trains, while others were trains solely for the carriage of mail.

Some TPOs were fitted with a net to allow the high-speed collection of mailbags at multiple locations along the route, and apparatus to drop off other bags at the same time. This speeded things up by reducing the number of stops made by the train, but was discontinued in 1971.

By the late 1990s, only 10 major British TPOs were still running, although such was their size that it took 370 Royal Mail staff to work them. The TPOs experienced a phased withdrawal as sorting became more mechanised, and eventually, the final TPO ran on the night of January 9, 2004.

The Royal Mail finally ceased operations of this service on the night of January 9, 2004.

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