Atomic Systems

Hi all,

I have just downloaded these Royal Mail coaches...

Mk1 TPO [2956149 bytes] - Mk1 TPO.zip File ID: 14202 Date: 10 Mar 2006 - 3117 Downloads

...and was wondering, what were the consists?

The three coach types are...

NTA-RM
NSX-RM-2
NSX-RM-1

Cheers...

Robert

Hi Robert,

As nobody else has replied...................

I can't speak for the Mk 1 period, but in the earlier heyday of the "postals" they made up trains in a great variety of ways, and with a seemingly constant variety of dedicated and general user stock, too. Feeder services ran with small consists joining up to form at busy times 12 -15 carriage trains.

There's quite a good article on the steam era West Coast Postal in Steam Days, Feb 2004, but it does not really help much with consists.

I'd suspect that later on in the "crucifix" logo period the stock was less variable, but have no info.

What reduced the reliance by the PO on the railways to carry mails on normal trains was the acceleration of timings by reducng station stop times....as when the IC125's became widespread, and station stop times reduced, the PO workers were just not given the time to shift mailbags on and off.
How much mail could you shift in 20 seconds..................??

Latterly the mail trains were really only for transport with much more limited use of sorting on the move. Taking on or dropping mail on the move by Traductors stopped in 1971.

As a total aside, at one stage in addition to my main tasks I had staff who looked after the PO owned station trolleys at London Stations, and the other stations used to bribe the BR London station staff to "nick" our well maintained ones and "dump" their dodgy ones.....a constant battle we usually lost !!!!!!!!!

Dave

Mail Consists

I can remember one of the night sleepers from Euston to Perth
always had the Royal Mail coaches attached, info on this must be
around on the Net somewhere.

I know there was a very old film of the LMS one done and was released on video.

Rick

I used to be a loco fireman on the BRistol Sheffield link out of 21A Saltley,

On the night mails the consist was usually loco, Jubilee class, 3 or 4 carriages one a Brake 3rd for the guard then 3 0r 4 Guv's which were corridor conected to the TPO but not to the front 4,, so that the TPO staff could get mail bags to sort, the TPO then a couple more GUV's sometimes a CCT..

Around Xmas when the load got heavier we would get help from a Black 5 loco.

Great days

If you have modern Railway Modelling magazine issue 2 might be worth a look at pages 60 - 67 which is a feature on TPO trains and has typical formations for each service.

Robert had a dig around for you and a book I have states this LNWR
/LMS lines

1949 Euston-Dundee/Perth reckon it were this one me ole Dad took us up to Scotland on anyway goes like this.............

BV S1 S3 C3 C3 CC B3 O3 CC B3 BV PS PS PS PS = 15 on.

in 1954 it ran as.............

BV BV S1 S3 C3 C3 C3 CC B3 PS PS PT PS = 13 on

in 1965 it ran as.............

BV BV S1 S2 CC B2 BV PT PS PS = 10 on

Hope it helps some

Rick

Previously in this thread, I said "The Night Mail" film had a Patriot if I remembered correctly......

Well at the start the clerk reports to Control that the 8:30 Postal (157) has a Class 6 locomotive with 340 tons, 12 vans. (Unrebuilt LMS Pat's were 5XP, but who's counting)

The first clear enough pic shows 5513, an un-named un-rebuilt Patriot class.

BUT, when the train is shown terminating it has a train loco with a Stanier tender...........and while they don't show it well enough to identify it, they then pan across the shed yard and focus on Scot Seaforth Highlander (6108) being cleaned after a run...............coincidence??


And for the truly curious, the 5P 4F Crab bringing in the Holyhead to interchange was 2933.

http://www.allanyeo.co.uk/index.html


Dave

bravedan wrote:

1crick14a wrote:Mail Consists

I know there was a very old film of the LMS one done and was released on video.

Rick

"The Night Mail" with a Patriot if I remember correctly......in rhyme....

<poem deleted to save space >

They don't write 'em like that any more.............

Dave

No but there was a rewrite on the BBC website when the mail trains were withdrawn.

DERAILED

This is the Junk Mail crossing the border
Delivered by truck now, that's the order
None of it wanted, all of it waste
All of it tinged with commercial distaste
Delivering catalogues all unsolicited
Names on the mailing list slyly elicited
"Yearly subscription" - that's the refrain
"Take out a loan or a time-share in Spain"
Unwanted brochures shrouded in plastic
Thousands of leaflets bound by elastic
All come unbidden, a waste of a trip
Bound for the landfill, bound for the tip
All come by lorries pounding the highways
Blocking the ring road and clogging the by-ways
No more will the Night Mail arrive at the station
Derailed by the forces of privatisation
"Victorian problem - Victorian answer"?
That is an insult to the service they ran, sir
Imagine old Isambard taking this tack
"Sorry we're late sir, leaves on the track"!
Now, gone is the romance
Gone is the snobbery
The twenty-first century's Greatest Train Robbery
So while we're asleep the postman is driving
And the profits of shareholders quietly thriving
To bring us material for which none of us asked
To redress the balance is how we are tasked
Here comes the postman rounding the block
Here comes the postman, here comes his knock
With quickening heart I leap from my bunk
"Anything interesting, dear?"
"Nothing, just junk!"

Kindest regards

John

That be the one Dave old rhyme makes me shudder matey.

Rick

Isn't it funny how a post can remain unanswered, and then suddenly take off.........!!

Have a look at the website, link above.........and tell him if you like it........I think he's done a brill job...............

Dave

Yup be a grand sight Dave, well worth a look.........Regards, Rick

http://www.burgess57.freeserve.co.uk/latest.htm

Scroll down the page to the (modern stock!!) PO pic and select the video clip!!!

Dave

I like this topic. There is definitely something romantic about the old TPOs. The modern version of Audens poem is a brilliant but chilling satire on the way attitude to mail has changed in modern times. The heart sinks rather than quickens when the post arrives nowadays.

My new route MideastPlus will enable users to recreate the glory days of TPOs. It contains a fictional Mail depot at Finsbury, a semi fictional depot at Peterborough and the 'real' RMT at Doncaster with facility at York to drop off/pick up mail at Platform 4 right next to the Royal mail sorting office. So you will be able to deliver most of ther mail for the eastern counties!

Departing North London Mail Depot


Passing Bowes Park on the Hertford Loop



Mick Clarke

I was trying to remember the Mail Centre that in 1999 ish got a rail link into it, only to discover when used for the first time that it needed dual locos to haul the very short consist back up out again................poss Newcastle??