Hi,

I used to work on the TPO, from Penzance To Bristol and back. It consisted on the front a Stowage BG  4 Sorting Coaches and the rear was another stowage BG. It started pre 40s with apparatus for mail bag pick up red stock then changed to Blue and Grey Stock and in the latter stages of service changed to all red without the apparatus.
Hope that helps.
GWRGirl

That would have been the Great West up then.

The following is not about a TPO rake, but may interest some.

I started with Royal Mail in the early 1980s in the main Bristol sorting office, adjacent to Temple Meads station. It was usual for new starters to be placed on a late or night duty for some months, finishing at 0100 or 0600.
Invariably your duty would entail a visit to the station to transfer mail bags between TPOs on different platforms. Lifts took you and a station barrow of mail bags down to the tunnels below the station, taking one up to the required platform. It was very busy for around an hour with 40-50 postmen, or I should say post persons transferring mails between TPO's.

The last TPO to arrive in Bristol was the down Midland around 0445, having started it's journey in Newcastle. I remember class 50s and Peaks being used a lot of the time. Of course all history now, given that Royal Mail decided to abandon TPO's and triple their fleet of articulated wagons. Very green!

They later had PCVs at the ends of some of the sets - I've not looked into which sets or what the formations were. This allowed them to move the train out of a terminus station for a short distance. As I understand it, although the PCVs had cabs and driving controls, these just showed up on a screen in the actual loco, allowing a driver in that to set the loco's controls appropriately. Locos used were fitted with nose-mounded RCH jumpers (in the case of 90s, 86s and rarly 47/7s these were already there for TDM - later 47/7s had them added and 67s were built with them).

I'm not aware of anyone having produced a PCV in N gauge.

The real ones are now all long withdrawn although a number survive - there are several, belonging to WCRC, stored in the sidings next to Hellifield station.

Quote from: DizzyBlonde on April 10, 2016, 09:47:31 PM
Hi,

I used to work on the TPO, from Penzance To Bristol and back. It consisted on the front a Stowage BG  4 Sorting Coaches and the rear was another stowage BG. It started pre 40s with apparatus for mail bag pick up red stock then changed to Blue and Grey Stock and in the latter stages of service changed to all red without the apparatus.
Hope that helps.
GWRGirl

So my 'play rake' wasn't so inaccurate as I thought. It consists of a Royal Mail BG (Farish 0787) + 6 Royal mail sorting coaches (Farish 374-901) + Royal Mail BG (Farish 0787).

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1zol3dmmp2kr17j/Mail%20Train%20002.MOV?dl=0

Robbie's Rolling Stock list overlay's

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwjazPCWyYbMAhUI7RQKHWa8CrgQFggcMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.robbiesrollingstock.co.uk%2F&usg=AFQjCNFLlrnv_QtAzQ2Z13kHBLy0Obc_jw&bvm=bv.119028448,d.ZWU

In 1956, the Norwich portion of the evening mail to/from Liverpool St was;
POS;BG;BCK:SK:BG.
This portion ran from Ipswich (Haughley?) to Norwich; the full train leaving Liverpool St included non-TPO vans and passenger coaches for Peterborough.
Martyn

Hi Martyn,

I take it that was the East Anglia TPO. As there were some TPO'S that ran out of Kings Cross and Euston.
Gloria (GWRGirl)

Here is an unusual working on the WCML

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1635814353371333&set=a.1485501575069279.1073741851.100008283522835&type=3&theater

Cheers
Mark

The Aberdeen to Carstairs West Coast Postal, which joined with relevant rolling stock at Carstairs from Glasgow, had the following:

Consist in 1978: CK, BSK, BPOT, POT, POS, POS

Consist in 1982: BG, TSO, BPOT, POT, POS, POS


In the sixties, this was a combined postal & passenger train from Aberdeen as far as Perth where the forward postal coaches were carried forward, often by an LNER Pacific, whilst the passenger coaches became a stopping service between Perth and Glasgow Buchanan Street.

From the photographs I've seen, the postal section was usually three or four carriages in number, with an example I think being 3 POS and 1 BG. I do have a Marshalling Manual from that period so I will check when I can.

Quote from: scruff on April 11, 2016, 02:42:40 PM
Here is an unusual working on the WCML

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1635814353371333&set=a.1485501575069279.1073741851.100008283522835&type=3&theater

Cheers
Mark

Someone has made a really bad job of spraying the yellow on the class 87. Could it have been me, I wonder?

Hi Gloria;

yes, that was the East Anglian TPO. It ran as a combined train to/from Liverpool St, but I'm not sure if it joined/split at Haughley or Ipswich (most likely). The Norwich section ran as described, the Peterborough section did not have a Post Office vehicle, but used standard stock. In LNER days, it is possible that these were two separate trains throughout.
I don't know when the vehicle was withdrawn, but until at least the late 50s/early 60s(?), the TPO was  Gresley design, with 'blisters' on the side.
A 1959 photo shows the first three vehicles of the Up train as Gresley TPO, then 2xLNER BGs, probably the steel sided version.

Martyn

Quote from: newportnobby on April 11, 2016, 08:05:33 PM

Quote from: scruff on April 11, 2016, 02:42:40 PM
Here is an unusual working on the WCML

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1635814353371333&set=a.1485501575069279.1073741851.100008283522835&type=3&theater

Cheers
Mark

Someone has made a really bad job of spraying the yellow on the class 87. Could it have been me, I wonder?

Can't have been you Mick... You'd still be trying to find the chimney so you could put the smokebox numberplate on!! 



Cheers
Mark

Quote from: scruff on April 13, 2016, 08:47:51 PM

Quote from: newportnobby on April 11, 2016, 08:05:33 PM

Quote from: scruff on April 11, 2016, 02:42:40 PM
Here is an unusual working on the WCML

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1635814353371333&set=a.1485501575069279.1073741851.100008283522835&type=3&theater

Cheers
Mark

Someone has made a really bad job of spraying the yellow on the class 87. Could it have been me, I wonder?

Can't have been you Mick... You'd still be trying to find the chimney so you could put the smokebox numberplate on!! 



Cheers
Mark

To say nothing of trying to shove coal where it shouldn't go, Mark
Back to the TPO rake before we have to sit on the naughty step...