TPO and parcel trains

[Oldddudders]

6 minutes ago, bécasse said:

Some Southern electric MLVs were repainted into Royal Mail colours complete with appropriate branding once they were no longer required for boat train duties. The programme was soon stopped when it dawned on someone that one might just as well have painted "WORTH ROBBING" on the side of them although they continued the same duties with a rather more anonymous paint scheme.

Why did MLVs with such branding attract anyone with criminal intentions any more than other vehicles with Royal Mail branding? After all, there used to be vehicles with a letter-box on the side, which might be construed as a bit of a giveaway. 

[SED Freightman]

On 03/06/2023 at 22:25, bécasse said:

Some Southern electric MLVs were repainted into Royal Mail colours complete with appropriate branding once they were no longer required for boat train duties. The programme was soon stopped when it dawned on someone that one might just as well have painted "WORTH ROBBING" on the side of them although they continued the same duties with a rather more anonymous paint scheme.

At least two MLV's received the red Royal Mail livery (68004 / 68009) in the late 1980's. I vaugely recall that one may have been robbed in the Redhill area in 1989/90, resulting in a rapid repaint into Network Southeast livery.

[Gwiwer]

On 03/06/2023 at 22:36, Oldddudders said:

Why did MLVs with such branding attract anyone with criminal intentions any more than other vehicles with Royal Mail branding? After all, there used to be vehicles with a letter-box on the side, which might be construed as a bit of a giveaway. 

Who knows in all honesty?  But it might have had something to do with the operating area.  Mail trains operated to and from Redhill for many years without known incident.  There was even a dedicated mail terminal there with a large conveyor system to obviate manual handling of the large numbers of mail-bags between road and rail vehicles.  Plenty of chance for something to occur had the intent been there.  Perhaps the repainting was literally the red rag to the bull?  

 

Mail trains in Post Office red, some with large and very clear "Travelling Post Office" branding on the sides, plied the rail network for years too.  Before PO red they were in corporate blue/ grey with small post office logos and prior to that in "Royal Mail" deep red which differed from the coaching stock maroon of the day.  So for most of their time they have been very easily identifiable and distinctive.  

 

Only one major incident has ever occurred.  A very few less serious attempts, one or two successful, have also been made over very many years of mail by rail.  The system was inherently secure and probably more so than a network of bright red road vehicles clogging our roads.  

[Morello Cherry]

I am happy to be corrected by weren't some of the Train Robbery gang known for mail robberies on the Brighton Line? So maybe there was form there. Not that I wish to cast aspersions on people from South London and Brighton.

[KeithHC]

Also Ronnie Biggs lived in Redhill for some time.

 

Keith

[slilley]

23 hours ago, Morello Cherry said:

I am happy to be corrected by weren't some of the Train Robbery gang known for mail robberies on the Brighton Line? So maybe there was form there. Not that I wish to cast aspersions on people from South London and Brighton.

They were indeed. Roger Cordrey was the man for stopping trains.

 

Simon

[SED Freightman]

68001 also appeared in Royal Mail red livery.

 

68004 was stopped and robbed at Merstham on 8/3/1989 whilst working from Brighton to London Bridge.