Midland TPO - Help required

[Paul Hutfield]

All,

I'm sure many of you are already aware of the Bristol Barrow Road project and despite the model's infancy, recent research has turned to some of the rolling stock.

The Midland coaching stock was stabled adjacent to the roundhouse and one particular train that has caught our attention is the 'Midland TPO' which as I understand it went from Bristol to Newcastle. What we are primarily trying to identify is the Diagram numbers and coach numbers of the 3 vehicles that made up the mail element of the train. Other information such as livery etc would also be extremely valuable. We are also interested in identifying the passenger element of this train, which from the photo's and video that we've already found, appears to be a bit more varried and ranges between 4 and 6 vehicles of the Mk1 variety.

So Far we have found an excellent picture of this train in Peter Johnsons book The British Travelling Post Office showing the train around yate in 1956 and being hauled by a Jubilee. We also have a series of 3 photo's showing the rake being pulled out of the carriage sidings and past Barrow Road shed, however these are not able to give us the information we need in order to model the rake. I believe I have identified the 2 end vehicles out of the 3 but confirmation would be very much appreciated, I don't have the details to hand but will post this later. It is to be noted that the middle vehicle of the 3 is one of the vehicles that had the recess for the collecting aparatus, however this was not actually fitted.

Additional sources of information so far have come from Jenkinson and Essery's The LMS coach Vol 3, and B & R Video Productions, Railways around Bristol, Vol 84.

There is also a picture in the Runpast book Birmingham - Bristol Portrait of a Famous Midland Route 2 - Cheltenham to Bristol and Bath of LNER stowage van E70640E at Bristol Temple Meads station, however this is a different TPO set I believe.

The period we are interested in is from the mid 50's through to the early 60's although any information about this train would be most useful, likewise we are always interested in photo's.

Kind Regards

Paul

[Mike Garwood]

Paul
Having looked for info on the TPO set that ran thru Little Mill, this was helpful.

email :info@postalheritage.org.uk or

www.postalheritage.org.uk/exhibitions/o ... itions/tpo

They were able to point in the right direction and eventually we got the consist of the train. If you contact me off site I can forward to you the reply that I rec'd from the PO, this tells you what they can and can't do.

Mike

[Paul Hutfield]

Mike,

Thanks for youre post, i'm sure the info must be out there!

Anyway, PM sent!

Best Wishes

Paul