A brake Post Office stowage van is a type of rail vehicle built for use in a

travelling post office A Travelling Post Office (TPO) was a type of mail train used in Great Britain and Republic of Ireland, Ireland where the post was sorted en route, used from 1830 to 1996, with non-TPO mail trains ending in 2024. The TPO can be traced back to ...

. The principal features were an open interior for the stowage of mail bags before or after sorting (but not for the sorting operation itself); and a compartment for the train guard, equipped with a handbrake. Some were also provided with traductor arms and/or nets for the transfer of mail pouches between lineside equipment and the van. Three were built by the Great Western Railway in 1933; one of them was written off in 1940, and a similar replacement was built that year. Originally, they did not have either nets or traductor arms, but both of these were fitted in 1946. They were used on the ''Great Western TPO'' service (Paddington to Penzance) until 1959, after which they were used on the Southern Region between London and the ports in Kent. They were withdrawn around 1972. One of these – the 1940 replacement – has been preserved.

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

built nine of these vehicles between 1959 and 1968, to two similar designs, both based on the Mark 1 coach design. They were numbered in the range 80450-80458. Following the Great Train Robbery, vehicles from 80456 onwards featured a revised design with smaller windows. In the early 1970s, British Rail introduced the

TOPS Total Operations Processing System (TOPS) is a computer system for managing railway locomotives and rolling stock, known for many years of use in the United Kingdom. TOPS was originally developed between the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP), ...

classification system. Vehicles were given the TOPS code NU, followed by an A if they were air-braked, V if vacuum-braked, or an X if they had both air and vacuum brakes.

Preservation

All three of the latter-build Mk1 vehicles have been preserved. Also a survivor from GWR has also made it into preservation.

References

External links

Nene Valley Railway TPO Group - owners of preserved vehicle 80456

Rail Vehicle Preservation - custodians of preserved vehicle 80458
{{British Rail Coaches British Rail coaching stock