A railwayman prepares the TPO apparatus at Llandudno Junction
A Travelling Post Office (TPO) was a type of mail train used in Great Britain and Ireland where the post was sorted en route. During 1866, apparatus for picking up and setting down mailbags without stopping was installed at Slough and Maidenhead. This concept had first been patented in 1838 by Nathaniel Worsdell, first deputy mayor of Crewe, and carriage and wagon superintendent at Crewe Works.[citation needed] Use of the system became prevalent over the following decades, it became commonplace for TPO carriages to be fitted with several for handling automated mail pickups/dropoffs, sometimes being furnished with four separate arms per carriage.[7] By 1914, there were 126 TPO carriages in operation throughout the United Kingdom. They were only referred to as TPOs for the first time in 1928, prior to this, the common term for mail carriages had been Railway Post Offices (RPOs) The apparatus shown was used to upload and download mailbags from the train whilst it was travelling at high speed, thus avoiding interrupting the journey by the need to stop.
Size: 6156px × 3792px
Location: Llandudno Junction
Photo credit: © Digbydachshund / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ..., apparatus, historic, junction, llandudno, lm&sr, lms, lnwr, office, post, postal, railway, tpo, travelling
