Some Big Four Mail Train Questions

[Hammer]

Some of these are a wee bit daft, but Google is not being very helpful answering these questions. Any info you guys can supply will be very gratefully received.

 

What was the typical make-up of an LMS cross-border night mail train? Night Mail states that it contained 12 carriages, but it says there are only 7 sorting cars, and I presume just one car equipped to pick up and drop mail.

 

What classes of engine, other then the Royal Scot, were used by LMS for night mail trains? I'm guessing probably the Jubilee and Patriot?

 

Did GWR, LNER and Southern use similar systems to that illustrated in Night Mail? If so, what sorts of locomotives were used to haul them and what routes did they typically run?

 

Any help gratefully received.

[asmay2002]

Some of these are a wee bit daft, but Google is not being very helpful answering these questions. Any info you guys can supply will be very gratefully received.

 

What was the typical make-up of an LMS cross-border night mail train? Night Mail states that it contained 12 carriages, but it says there are only 7 sorting cars, and I presume just one car equipped to pick up and drop mail.

 

What classes of engine, other then the Royal Scot, were used by LMS for night mail trains? I'm guessing probably the Jubilee and Patriot?

 

Did GWR, LNER and Southern use similar systems to that illustrated in Night Mail? If so, what sorts of locomotives were used to haul them and what routes did they typically run?

 

Any help gratefully received.

 

 

"The Illustrated history of LMS coaching stock vol 1" gives the formation of the "West Coast postal" leaving Euston for 1934 as

 

BG,BG,POT,BG,POT,POT,POS,POS,POS,POS,POS,POT

 

With the first BG for Liverpool and the second for Manchester. The first POT was for Preston leaving the rest for Scotland. Other vehicles were added along the way (not listed in the book).

 

The West Coast Postal was the only LMS mail train to consist entirely of NPCS. Other LMS mail services included passenger carrying stock.

[Hammer]

Thank you very much for the information.

[phil-b259]

The SR mail trains never used the on the move pick up / dispatch apparatus. They did however have sorting and storage vans of which one of the former has survived into preservation on the Bluebell (although currently tarpulined up awaiting restoration)

[eastwestdivide]

The SR mail trains never used the on the move pick up / dispatch apparatus. ...

That's interesting. My grandfather, all his life a postal worker in Kent, used to tell stories about the apparatus failing and hundreds of letters being blown down the trackside. I suppose they could have been second-hand stories, but I remember them being told as if he was there. He's long since departed though, so I can't check up on that.