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A 'Travelling Post Office' (TPO) is a type of mail train where the post is sorted en-route.
Mail was first sorted on a moving train in a converted horse-box on the Grand Junction Railway, England, in January 1838,^[1] at the suggestion of Frederick Karstadt, a Post Office surveyor. Karstadt's son was one of two mail clerks who did the sorting.^[2] In 1845 the service was extended via Derby to Newcastle upon Tyne by the Midland Railway and soon after reached Scotland.^[3]
British TPOs were operated most recently by Rail Express Systems, and their successor EWS. 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 competitor FirstGBRf, then called GB Railfreight.
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.
TPOs were employed in many British Colonies. The Army Post Office had its own TPOs.
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

Contents

See also

References

External links

See also

★ Railway post office - The term for cars in North American use that served similar functions.

★ Night Mail - Film and Poem about Travelling Post Office

★ 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

References

1. The American Railroad Passenger Car, White, John H., Jr., , , Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978, ISBN 0-8018-1965-2
2. The British Travelling Post Office, Johnson, Peter., , , Ian Allan Publishing, 1985, ISBN 0-711-01459-0
3. Billson, P., (1996) ''Derby and the Midland Railway'' Derby: Breedon Books

External links

★ The British Postal Museum & Archive - Victorian Travelling Post Office.

★ Travelling Post Office of the Cape of Good Hope