A Post Office sorting 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 Ireland where the post was sorted en route. The TPO can be traced back to the earlier days of the railway, the first ever postal movement by rail being performe ...

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four (British ra ...

built ninety-six of these vehicles between 1959 and 1977, to several similar designs, all based on the Mark 1 coach design. They were numbered in the range 80300–80395. The earliest vehicles built featured catching nets and collection arms, to allow mail bags to be exchanged without the train needing to stop, a practice which continued until 1971. Following the Great Train Robbery, vehicles from 80319 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 NS, 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

Several sorting vehicles have been preserved, including examples from most of the big four companies, as well as some from even earlier. There are also several BR Mark 1 vehicles in preservation, including the first-built vehicle, no. 80300; the last vehicle built with large windows, no. 80318; and the final vehicle overhauled by EWS, no. 80382. The complete list is shown below: British Rail Mk1 TPO sorting vehicles: Pre-nationalisation design TPO sorting vehicles: Pre-grouping TPO sorting vehicles:

External links

Rail Vehicle Preservation - owners of preserved vehicle 80301
{{British Rail Coaches British Rail coaching stock