Overview

This pack of six cards features wonderfully atmospheric shots from the 1940s showing some of the tasks and equipment from the Travelling Post Office mail trains.

Some images show everyday life on the TPO in beautiful detail: the high-speed mail exchange apparatus waiting trackside, rows of mailbags ready to be filled, sorting racks being chalked up with the names of Scottish post towns, a guard blowing his whistle to send the ‘Postal Special’ on its way.

In addition to these photographs, the set features illlustrations of an early Parcel Sorting Van from the end of the 19th century and from a GPO pamphlet of 1939 used to instruct TPO officers.  

You can view the exhibition The Travelling Post Office online.