Origins On 11 November 1830, the first ever postal movement by rail was made by the
Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR), which had come to an agreement with the
General Post Office (GPO) to move their mail upon L&MR services. It quickly became apparent that the railways were providing a much faster method of conveying letters across the country than traditional horse-drawn coaches. Accordingly, the carriage of mail by train in
Great Britain became a routine event within a matter of years. Initially, the movement of mail was at the choice of individual railway companies, being able to accept or refuse to do so at their discretion. The passing of the
Railways (Conveyance of Mails) Act 1838 substantially reshaped the rail mail market. Chiefly, it required all railway companies to carry mail, either by ordinary or special trains, as required by the
Postmaster General; however, this act did not stipulate what was to be charged for such services. Karstadt's son was one of two mail clerks who did the sorting. During 1845, the
Midland Railway decided to extend their TPO services via
Derby to
Newcastle upon Tyne; and soon after reached
Scotland. 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. Prior to 1885, it was common practice for TPO carriages to be added to
consists of normal passenger services. TPOs were usually equipped with letter boxes, enabling people in stations to post mail whilst the train was stationary. The post-marks from TPOs are valued by
philatelists. 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. 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. The final mail drop from a moving train using automatic apparatus was carried out on 4 October 1971 at a location just north of
Penrith. Although there were in excess of 40 TPOs running at this time, item transfers were only carried out at stations after this date. During the 1980s, BR planners endeavoured to rejuvenate numerous aspects of its operations and to better fulfil customer demands. There were also rising concerns over wellbeing of workers within TPOs, as there was little consideration towards crashworthiness or the wellbeing of the occupants in the event of a major accident. The discontinuation of TPOs reportedly saved RM £10m per year, while the contract to operate them reportedly equated to 10 per cent of EWS’ overall business, representing a major loss to the company. marking the end of sorting of mail on trains in Britain. However, Royal Mail did restore the movement of some already-sorted letters by rail in time for the Christmas season that year, contracting with EWS's competitor
GB Railfreight to resume bulk transfer services along the
West Coast Main Line between its mail terminals at London (Willesden), Warrington and Glasgow (
Sheildmuir) using the dedicated
Class 325 electric multiple units that had been in operation since 1996. == Ireland ==