• That as late as the 1960's some TPO coaches were heated by a single steam pipe running along the ceiling of the coach. As hot air rises the coach rarely became warm before the end of the journey. The extreme winter of 1962 / 63 often saw even this form of heating solidly frozen.
• That some new recruits failed to make the grade because of travel sickness brought on by the peculiar motion of the coach.
• That for many years smoking was permitted on TPO's except at stations.
• That TPO's experienced severe problems with fumes from diesel locomotives when they were first introduced. The end screens, commonly used in steam days, seemed to vanish with monotonous regularity. Shunters either would not or could not fit them, exacerbating the situation. Very often a 'buffer' vehicle had to be located between engine and TPO to lessen the problem.
• That every TPO had a water boiler or urn for tea making, which was probably the most carefully tended item of equipment on the mail.
• That TPO's were allowed to have 'Tea Clubs' to cater for the needs of the crew. Official sanction had to be granted for this activity!
• That experienced TPO men never sorted on a marked sorting frame and could switch from one 'road' to another during the trip.
• That travelling in a TPO vehicle at night meant that the staff had no visual appreciation of their location. It was vital that they knew which stage of the journey they were on. It was uncanny to see a situation where perhaps a set of points was passed over at speed and suddenly everyone would start preparing for a despatch without a word being said. Apart from the apparatus men, no staff would be able to see anything even if they looked out of the windows, yet most well travelled staff knew precisely where they were within half a mile.
• That sorting in pre-postcode days required an encyclopaedic knowledge of the areas dealt with by the TPO staff. Regular sorting every night meant that the hundreds of obscure villages and hamlets in each county became imprinted on the mind. In a sorting office there was time to look up an odd place in the 'blind list' - on a TPO a name would be shouted out and most of the time someone would know its location - there simply was not enough time to look each one up. It was a matter of honour NOT to refer to the blind list.
• That TPO staff never had a meal relief while on duty. It was always taken at the end of the period of travelling.
• That TPO staff were not paid overtime on a weekly basis. One week their weekly hours might be below the national standard hours required while another week it could mean a considerable excess. A somewhat mystical method of accounting called the aggregation system or 'agg' was based on a mean average totalled over 5 weeks.
• That bags were originally sealed with hot sealing wax melted on a small coke stove. The noxious fumes from the wax and coke had a serious, even fatal, effect upon the officers working on the TPO.
• That TPOs were built by the railway companies but were paid for and owned by the Post Office.
• That because of apparatus working and offset gangways TPO vehicles had to be turned every day.
• That TPO staff could be fined for leaving items on the carriage at the end of their duty.

The little snippets of information above are just a small selection from those printed in the magazine "The Wansford Mail", which is produced every six months for the members of the "Friends" scheme. To discover more join as a member. For a one off fee of £40 you will receive a certificate showing that you have joined the scheme, all the newsletters todate, a first day cover when M30272M returns to service and the opportunity to travel in M30272M before it enters public service.

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