Revolutions in Postal Transport - 1
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Carriage of mail by rail
The first carriage of mail by railway took place on Thursday, 11 November 1830 between Manchester and Liverpool, less than two months after that railway opened. By 1841 the Post Office employed mail guards on some 20 different major rail routes, including one in Ireland. Mail was carried on a further five routes in Scotland. As a result the transport of mail was speeded up considerably.
On 14 August 1838 the Act to provide for the Conveyance of the Mails by Railways became law. This was an attempt to address the innumerable reports sent to the Postmaster General detailing late arrivals due to breakdown, weakness or the slowness of locomotive engines.
The new law allowed the Postmaster General to require railway companies to transport mails by ordinary or special trains as he might direct. Companies were also to provide carriages fitted for the sorting of letters if the PMG so instructed. This slide shows the first purpose built Travelling Post Office carriage from 1838, for the sorting of mail on the move. This image is taken from unadopted stamp artwork by Rosalind Dease, for the Post Office Technology issue of 1969.
Each opening, or extension, of railway line meant the either the demise, or the complete reorganisation of those horse-drawn mail coaches which had served that route. The last horse-drawn mail coach route from London to Norwich was withdrawn in January 1846. Mail coaches continued to run outside London, remaining in the more remote areas throughout the latter half of the Victorian era. You can find out more in Moving the Mail.
