The post office and its story : $b an interesting account of the activities of a great government departmentBennett, Edward
History
The post office and its story : $b an interesting account of the activities of a great government department
Bennett, Edward
Postal service -- Great Britain -- History
Upwards of 3,000,000 miles are run annually by Travelling Post Offices
in this country. The largest number are run on the London and
North-Western and Caledonian Railways, amounting in all to 1,800,000
miles. The London night mail is the heaviest mail in the course of the
twenty-four hours. Day mails and mid-day mails are merely subsidiaries
to the larger service. It has been said that “the principal mail train
in the kingdom, perhaps in the whole world, is the Down Postal Express
which leaves Euston every night at 8.30.” It consists entirely of postal
vehicles, and carries thirty Post Office officials, the only
representatives of the railway company being the driver, fireman, and
guard. At Tamworth connection is made with the Midland Travelling Post
Office going north and south and with the Lincoln sorting carriage. At
Carlisle the Caledonian Railway takes on the running. The London
officers are relieved here, and Glasgow and Edinburgh sorters take over
the carriages journeying to these cities. At Perth the train is on the
Highland Railway system, and has a direct run to Aberdeen. At most
important points on the road it connects with cross-country routes.
The Great Western Railway has a similar train which leaves Paddington at
9.5 P.M. and is due at Penzance at 6.45 A.M. The mail is divided for
sorting purposes into five divisions, the fifth being known as the
Cornwall Section. At Reading a large number of bags are exchanged for
the South and Midlands. The London and South-Western Travelling Post
Office is connected here with the Paddington mail.
Travelling Post Offices are attached to the night trains on other lines
from London, and these trains also carry passengers. At 9.13 P.M. there
is a carriage from London Bridge for Brighton and south coast towns. The
Great Eastern trains leaving Liverpool Street for Ipswich and Norwich at
8.50 P.M. and 10.7 P.M. have sorting carriages attached to them. The
continental night mail leaves Cannon Street at 9.5 P.M., and is followed
at 10 P.M. by the South-Eastern Travelling Post Office. There is also a
night mail between Holborn Viaduct and Folkestone in connection with the
Flushing route to the Continent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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