Travelling Post Office

[Noel]

9 hours ago, Glenderg said:

Folks, stop looking at the stuff above the solebar, and just beneath it, along the rake and tell me what you see.... 

Wheels, darkness, the tracks and metal gubbins and boxes that passengers never get to see.

Bogie Parcel Brake Van, Park Royal, Bogie TPO,  What looks like another bogie TPO, and a plethora of Laminates or Bredin coaches being shunted into the adjacent siding, possibly one craven in there.

Kevin posted this pic

[BSGSV]

On 2/11/2020 at 9:01 AM, BSGSV said:

I will be following up on JHB's comments re the preserved examples in due course. 

I have looked at 2977 and 2978. An Post's 2977 poses some difficulty, in that the body was re-skinned in preservation, and, given it is in the Carriage Gallery at Downpatrick, scraping away paint is not encouraged! The narrow panels at the inset doors are still original, although only one offered any flaking paint. A flake from the inner edge of the panel had green paint closest to the metal, but could be just paint creeping through a crack, as a flake from the middle of the same panel got down to bare metal with no sign of green beneath the golden brown. 

DCDR's own 2978 offered more scope for samples, and no evidence of green beneath either black or brown. The first coat of B&T seems to have directly on top of the aluminium, with no primer, which would make sense given the aluminium had weathered.

I also noted that as 2978 was next to 1918, that the official width of 10' 5" clearly related to the vehicle with nets. I measured the end of 2978 at 9 ' wide. 

The four-wheel TPO at DCDR was also measured at 9' wide.

[jhb171achill]

Interesting. 

I was sure I found green on one of them some years ago.... !

[BSGSV]

On 2/8/2020 at 11:58 PM, flange lubricator said:

this is as I would remember them

Thanks for the photo. The Irish Railfan's News indicates the P7T sign was originally yellow letters on a grey enamelled background, so this one looks original. 

[jhb171achill]

Tis indeed original, though the background  greyish colour did have a distinct greenish tint. This shows.....  I must delve among my own stuff, but in all reality I don’t think I took a pic of one ever!

Fry made a model of one - I think. I’ll look tomorrow...

[Noel]

Its amazing how fast OCR and even handwriting recognition technology replaced the need for manual sorting. EIR codes came 20-30 years too late to be of any relevance from a sorting point of view. OCR is faster anyway. EIR codes good for couriers especially in rural areas.