THE TRAVELLING POST-OFFICE.
Travellers who are in the habit of journeying over the principal railway
lines, must at some time or other have noticed certain carriages in the
express trains which had an unusually dull and van-like appearance,
though set off with a gilded crown and the well-known letters V.R., and
that generally these carriages appeared to have no proper doors, and
were possessed of none but very diminutive windows--on one side, at any
rate. It will have been observed, also, that sometimes two, three, or
more of such carriages are placed end to end in certain trains, and that
a hooded gangway or passage enables those inside one carriage to visit
any or all of the other carriages. When the small square holes or dwarf
doorways which communicate with the outside are open, a glare of light
is seen within, which reveals a variety of human legs and much
canvas--the latter in the shape of mail-bags, either suspended from the
walls of the carriage or lying on the floor. These carriages are what
are called in the Post-office the "Travelling Post-office"; or, when
brevity is desirable--as is often the case--the "T.P.O." There are
several travelling post-offices of more or less importance pursuing
their rapid flight during the night in different quarters of the
country; but the most important, no doubt, are the "London and
North-Western and Caledonian," running from London to Aberdeen; the
"Midland," running from Newcastle diagonally across England to Bristol;
and the "London and Holyhead" travelling post-office, by which the Irish
mails to Dublin are conveyed as far as Holyhead.
[Illustration: Travelling Post-office.]
If a stranger were allowed to travel in one of these carriages, the
first thing that would probably take his notice would be the brilliant
light which fills the interior; and the necessity for a good light to
enable men, standing on a vibrating and oscillating floor, to read
quickly all sorts of manuscript addresses, will be understood by whoever
has attempted to peruse writing by the light derived from the ordinary
oil-lamps of a railway carriage. Yet for years the light supplied in the
Travelling Post-office has been given by improved oil-lamps, though more
recently gas has been introduced in some of the carriages. The next
thing he would notice would likely be the long series of pigeon-holes
occupying the whole of one side of the vehicle, divided into
groups--each box having a name upon it or a number, and a narrow table
running along in front of the boxes, bearing a burden of letters which
the sorters are busily disposing of by putting each one in its proper
place--that is, in the pigeon-hole, from which it will afterwards be
despatched. Then hanging on the walls or lying under the table will be
seen canvas bags and canvas sacks, each having its name stencilled in
bold letters on its side; and somewhere about the floor great rolls of
black leather, with enormously strong straps and buckles--the expanse of
leather in each roll being almost sufficient to cover an ox. The use of
these hides of leather will be described further on.
The _raison d'etre_ of the travelling post-office is to circumvent
time,--to enable that to be done on the way which, without it, would
have to be done before the train started or after it arrived at its
destination, at the expense of time in the doing, and to collect and
dispose of correspondence at all points along the route of the
train--which correspondence would otherwise in many cases have to pass
through some intermediate town, to be detained for a subsequent means of
conveyance. The T.P.O. is one of the most useful parts of the machinery
of the Post-office. Among the smaller things that might be observed in
the carriage would be balls of string for tying bags or bundles of
letters, cyclopean sticks of sealing-wax, a chronometer to indicate sure
time, a lamp used for melting the wax, and various books, report-forms,
seals, &c.
The stranger would be surprised, also, to see with what expedition an
experienced sorter can pass the letters through his hands, seldom
hesitating at an address, but reading so much of it as is necessary for
his purpose, and, without raising his eyes, carrying his hand to the
proper pigeon-hole, just as a proficient on a musical instrument can
strike with certainty the proper note without taking his eye off his
music. In some cases--as in dealing with registered letters--a sorter
has much writing to do; but, standing with his feet well apart, and
holding a light board on his left arm on which to write, and further, by
accommodating his body to the swinging of the carriages, he is able to
use his pen or pencil with considerable freedom and success.
As the duties in the T.P.O. are for the most part performed during the
night, the sorters employed have a great deal of night-work, and in some
cases their terms of duty are very broken and irregular. Thus, with the
hardships they have to endure in periods of severe frost, when no
heating apparatus is supplied except a few warming-pans, they live a
life of duty far removed from ease or soft idleness.
The large pieces of leather with stout straps attached, already referred
to, called pouches, are used as a protection to mail-bags which have to
be delivered by what is commonly known as the apparatus. The mail-bags
to be so disposed of are rolled up inside one of these pouches; the ends
of the leather are folded in; the whole is bound round with the strong
leather straps; and, the buckles being fastened, the pouch is ready for
delivery. But, first, let the apparatus itself be described. This
consists of two parts: an arm or arms of stout iron attached to the
carriage, which can be extended outwards from the side, and to the end
of which the pouch containing the bag is suspended when ready; and a
receiving net, also attached to the side of the carriage, which can
likewise be extended outwards to catch the mails to be taken up--this
portion acting the part of an aerial trawl-net to capture the bags
suspended from brackets on the roadside. The apparatus on the roadside
is the counterpart of that on the carriage, the suspending arm in each
case fitting itself to the nets on the carriage and roadside
respectively. Now the use of this apparatus demands much attention and
alacrity on the part of the men who are in charge of it; for arms and
net must not, for fear of accidents, be extended anywhere but at the
appointed places, and within 200 or 300 yards of where the exchange of
mails is to take place. The operators, in timing the delivery, are
guided by certain features of the country they are passing through--a
bridge, a tree on a rising ground which can be seen against the sky, a
cutting along the line through which the train passes with much clatter,
a railway station, and so on--as well as by their estimate of the speed
at which the train is running. When the nights are clear, a trained
operator can easily recognise his marks; but in a very dark night, or
during a fog, his skill and experience are put to the test. On such
occasions he seems to be guided by the promptings of his collective
senses. He puts his face close to the window, shutting off the light
from the carriage with his hands, and peers into the darkness, trying to
recognise some wayside object; he listens to the noise made by the
train, estimates its speed of travelling, and by these means he judges
of his position, and effects the exchange of the mails.
It is indeed marvellous that so few failures take place; but this is an
instance of how, by constant application and experience, things are
accomplished which might at first sight be considered wellnigh
impossible. When the exchange takes place, it is the work of a
moment--"thud, thud." The arm which bore the bag springs, disengaged, to
the side of the carriage; the operator takes the inwards bag from the
net, draws the net close up to the side of the vehicle, and the whole
thing is done, and we are ready for the next exchange.
The blow sustained by the pouch containing the mail-bag at the moment
of delivery, on occasions when the train is running at a high speed, is
exceedingly severe, and sometimes causes damage to the contents of the
bags when of a fragile nature and these are not secured in strong
covers. A bracelet sent by post was once damaged in this way, giving
rise to the following humorous note:--
"Mr ---- is sorry to return the bracelet to be repaired. It came this
morning with the box smashed, the bracelet bent, and one of the
cairngorms forced out. Among the modern improvements of the Post-office
appears to be the introduction of sledge-hammers to stamp with. It would
be advisable for Mr ---- to remonstrate with the Postmaster-General,"
&c.
[Illustration: Delivering Arm, showing how the Pouch is suspended.]
The Travelling Post-office apparatus is said to have been originally
suggested by Mr Ramsay of the General Post-office; but his machinery was
not very satisfactory when brought into practice. The idea was, however,
improved upon by Mr Dicker, who was able to bring it into working
condition; and for his services in this matter he was awarded a sum of
L500 by the Lords of the Treasury, and the Postmaster-General conferred
upon him an appointment as Supervisor of mail-bag apparatus. Some
further improvements were carried out by Mr Pearson Hill, as, for
example, the double arm, so that two pouches might be discharged at once
from the same carriage-door. The apparatus first came to be used about
thirty years ago, and there are now in the United Kingdom some 250
points or stations at which this magical game of give and take is
carried on daily, and in many cases several times a day. At certain
places not merely one or two pouches are discharged at a time, but a
running fire is sometimes kept up to the extent of nine discharges of
pouches. By the limited mail proceeding to the North, nine pouches are
discharged at Oxenholme from the three Post-office carriages, the method
followed being this:--Two pouches are suspended from the arms at each
carriage-door, and upon these being discharged, three of the arms are
immediately reloaded, when the pouches are caught by a second set of
roadside nets, distant only about 600 yards from the first. It is
necessary that great care should be taken in adjusting the nets, arms,
and roadside standards to their proper positions in relation to one
another, for any departure from such adjustment sometimes leads to
accident. The pouches occasionally are sent bounding over hedges, over
the carriages, or under the carriage-wheels, where they and their
contents get cut to pieces. Pouches have been found at the end of a
journey on the carriage-roof, or hanging on to a buffer. In November
last, a pouch containing several mail-bags was discharged from the
Midland Travelling Post-office at Cudworth, near Barnsley; but something
going wrong, the pouch got cut up, and the contents were strewn along
the line as far as Normanton. Some of these were found to be cheques, a
silver watch, a set of artificial teeth, &c.
The following is a list of the Travelling Post-offices in the United
Kingdom, most of which travel by night, distributing their freight of
intellectual produce through all parts of the country:--
North-Western and Caledonian.
Birmingham and Stafford.
London and Holyhead.
Bangor and Crewe, and Normanton and Stalybridge.
London and Exeter.
Bristol and Exeter.
York and Newcastle.
St Pancras and Derby.
Midland.
Bristol and Newton Abbot.
South-Western.
South-Eastern.
Great Northern.
London and Bristol.
London and Crewe.
-----------------
Dublin and Belfast.
Belfast and Northern Counties.
Ulster.
Midland (Ireland).
Great Southern and Western.
Dublin to Cork.
There are, besides, a great many other Travelling Post-offices of minor
importance throughout the country, designated Sorting Tenders.