Stafford old royal mail platform

[Trainfan2019]

At Stafford yesterday I saw an old abandoned royal mail platform across from platform 6. Looks abandoned apart from one or two remnants to it's past.

Does this platform still get any use with mail trains? I noticed at one end of the platform a lot of metal cages filled with royal mail sacks containing mail. Presume just using part of the platform as storage space? If the platform isn't used with mail trains, when did mail train use end?

 

[zwk500]

No mail trains, its just used as a goods loop now. Unless something has started up since covid. No idea when they ended sorry.

 

[Watershed]

At Stafford yesterday I saw an old abandoned royal mail platform across from platform 6. Looks abandoned apart from one or two remnants to it's past.

Does this platform still get any use with mail trains? I noticed at one end of the platform a lot of metal cages filled with royal mail sacks containing mail. Presume just using part of the platform as storage space? If the platform isn't used with mail trains, when did mail train use end?

Royal Mail still use the sorting office, I suspect that's where the metal cages are from (as the platform backs directly onto the building). It hasn't had mail trains for years, possibly not since the days of the TPO (which ended around 2004).

 

[Trainfan2019]

Ah thanks for the info both of you.

 

[Cheshire Scot]

Royal Mail still use the sorting office, I suspect that's where the metal cages are from (as the platform backs directly onto the building). It hasn't had mail trains for years, possibly not since the days of the TPO (which ended around 2004).

The class 325s used it - I went on an official visit to see the cages loaded and unloaded in the late 1990s, and I understood it was built specifically for this use.
At risk of further incorrect Wikipedia info. that oracle claims TPOs ended in 1996.

 

[WesternLancer]

At risk of further incorrect Wikipedia info. that oracle claims TPOs ended in 1996.

Travelling Post Office - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

This page says 9 Jan 2004 - which I think is probably correct date.

 

[mailbyrail]

TPOs came and went over the years with numerous route changes and network reorganisations, but the end of the TPO nationally was indeed 9 Jan 2004 - the last train in service was the return working of the Bristol Penzance which didn't arrive until the morning of the 10th Jan.
The TPO network had been running down for a few years prior to the final end with fewer trains making calls at an ever smaller number of stations. I'm not sure when the last routes called at Stafford. Certainly the TPO network did not end in 1996, although one train which did cease that year was the Birmingham - Glasgow TPO.

 

[nw1]

Interestingly I think that Royal Mail platform was actually relatively new. I'm sure when I visited Stafford in the 80s there was nothing beyond platform 6.

 

[Trainfan2019]

Fascinating reading this thread. I did see a video on YouTube the other night that had some footage of the Stafford royal mail platform in use, looked quite a hive of activity. It got me thinking then though, are there many other designated royal mail platforms around the UK? I've never see one before until Stafford. Thanks.

 

[zwk500]

Fascinating reading this thread. I did see a video on YouTube the other night that had some footage of the Stafford royal mail platform in use, looked quite a hive of activity. It got me thinking then though, are there many other designated royal mail platforms around the UK? I've never see one before until Stafford. Thanks.

Tonbridge had one separate from the station. I think Preston had a generic mail/parcels one rather than specifically to Royal mail.

 

[Cheshire Scot]

Fascinating reading this thread. I did see a video on YouTube the other night that had some footage of the Stafford royal mail platform in use, looked quite a hive of activity. It got me thinking then though, are there many other designated royal mail platforms around the UK? I've never see one before until Stafford. Thanks.

There are Royal Mail terminals at Shieldmuir (Motherwell), Warrington Dallam, Doncaster, I think Tyne Yard, and the Willesden Hub all purpose built, like Stafford, for the introduction of Class 325 and providing level loading/unloading for roll cages, there may be others from this era I am not aware of.

The Preston 'parcels' platform was previously a passenger platform, I assume until the remodelling in the early 1970s.

 

[Watershed]

Fascinating reading this thread. I did see a video on YouTube the other night that had some footage of the Stafford royal mail platform in use, looked quite a hive of activity. It got me thinking then though, are there many other designated royal mail platforms around the UK? I've never see one before until Stafford. Thanks.

Preston still has a RES/Parcels platform on the west side of the station. Now just used by trains going to and from the various sidings around the station. Tonbridge and Warrington Bank Quay have Royal Mail platforms very near the station, although the former isn't used anymore. And then there are Low Fell, Shieldmuir and Willesden PRDC, which are not really near to or associated with any station, but still see a few 325s each day.

Preston RES platform is proposed to be converted back into passenger use as part of HS2 upgrades.

 

[Bertie the bus]

Preston parcel platform has never been a Royal Mail platform and I'm not sure TPOs ever used it. The TPOs used the main station platforms (3 and 4) which were linked to the sorting office via a now demolished conveyor.

 

[Ken H]

Bristol Parkway had one on the north side.

 

[pdeaves]

The Railnet sites are shown on http://www.railwaycodes.org.uk/stations/railnet.shtm

 

[mjc]

The mail trains certainly pass through Stafford and I’ve seen them in that platform over the last few years pre-Covid but whether it was there to load/unload or just waiting time/broken down I’ve no idea.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

There was one at the western end of what is now Platform One at Newport (South Wales) station.

It was a bay platform with a double sided building; one side was on the platform and the other looked out over the goods yard. There's no trace of any of it now, as the goods yard was demolished and replaced by a car park and a new road, and the bay platform was removed completely.

 

[SCDR_WMR]

The mail trains certainly pass through Stafford and I’ve seen them in that platform over the last few years pre-Covid but whether it was there to load/unload or just waiting time/broken down I’ve no idea.

Yes they still run trains up through Crewe, don't seem to stop and I have no idea where they come from or go..... presumably from Wembley but where to I haven't a clue

 

[zwk500]

Yes they still run trains up through Crewe, don't seem to stop and I have no idea where they come from or go..... presumably from Wembley but where to I haven't a clue

Willesden PRDC (Wembley Yard) - Warrington Distribution Centre - Shieldmuir (Glasgow) distribution centre. Also another flow Willesden PRDC - Low Fell (Newcastle). Units are all maintained at Crewe by DB Cargo (or by somebody on their behalf).

 

[Trainfan2019]

Yes they still run trains up through Crewe, don't seem to stop and I have no idea where they come from or go..... presumably from Wembley but where to I haven't a clue

I keep seeing these mail trains on real time trains but had no luck in trying to actually see one go through Crewe yet!

 

[Adrian Barr]

The mail trains certainly pass through Stafford and I’ve seen them in that platform over the last few years pre-Covid but whether it was there to load/unload or just waiting time/broken down I’ve no idea.

Class 325s use the mail platform on test runs from Crewe electric depot after maintenance. An out and back "runs as required" working has regular timetabled paths as 5G20 11:35 Crewe IEMD - Stafford and 5K21 12:51 return, although this working is cancelled far more often than it runs.

Another "as required" working off Crewe electric depot, around the same time of day, is 5A91 11:21 Crewe IEMD to Willesden PRDC, which is a much more frequent runner (the corresponding working in the other direction is a 5K07 00:22 Willesden PRDC - Crewe IEMD). These workings are the ones currently used to get 325 units to and from Crewe for planned maintenance.

I keep seeing these mail trains on real time trains but had no luck in trying to actually see one go through Crewe yet!

Anglo-Scottish mail services are booked through Crewe southbound at 10:07 (1M31 MSX) and 20:10 (1A97 SX) and in the northbound direction at 18:20 (1S80 MSX) and 18:48 (1S96 SX)

If the platform isn't used with mail trains, when did mail train use end?

The mail services were gradually thinned out during 2003, with the last TPOs and other mail trains finishing at the beginning of 2004. For some general background on the mail trains before and during the "Railnet" era, the YouTube video "Railnet - Royal Mail's £150m Waste" by Ruairidh MacVeigh is worth watching (some good BR-era archive footage used!)

GBRF restarted some London - Shieldmuir services with 325s in Dec 2004, although initially these were loco hauled, as in this shot of 87022 at Rugeley - https://www.flickr.com/photos/wulfruna_kid/28670626015

This means that, as far as I know, there has never been a December without at least some mail trains running to help with the extra volumes of Christmas mail!

I was looking at some old copies of Freightmaster to see which trains might have called at the platform at Stafford. Searching these headcodes in flickr found some nice photos which illustrate some of the trains calling there, at least the loco-hauled ones:

12:44 Plymouth - Shieldmuir mail on 08/09/99 with a class 86 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishrail1980sand1990s/17151558763/

1F43 20:12 Birmingham New Street - Warrington RMT (portion detached off 1E43 15:09 Plymouth - Low Fell) - here with a GNER liveried Class 90 in 2001 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/shawfordjunction/40337709781

1S96 16:00 Willesden - Shieldmuir, with 90034 in 2002 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/63513902@N05/49709155342/

1V68 1946 Shieldmuir to Cardiff TPO with 90016 in 2002 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/jason15c/50975555342/

1A93 21:18 Carlisle to Willesden TPO with 90017 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/andy_masons_gallery/15815705892/

For comparison, this is a nostalgic photo of the pre-Railnet era at Stafford, with a class 81 on a TPO set in 1987 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/tutenkhamunsleeping/5373686998/

There are Royal Mail terminals at Shieldmuir (Motherwell), Warrington Dallam, Doncaster, I think Tyne Yard, and the Willesden Hub all purpose built, like Stafford, for the introduction of Class 325 and providing level loading/unloading for roll cages, there may be others from this era I am not aware of.

I seem to remember hearing that the increased height of the Railnet platforms would have caused problems with opening the doors on traditional passenger stock! The Railnet trains did call at various places with standard height platforms - this picture shows some sort of portable ramp being used to transfer the "York" trolleys from platform to train at Carlisle - https://www.flickr.com/photos/75784477@N08/41276163512

Considering that the use of 67s on mail trains didn't really start until 2000, the same year the final Railnet terminal opened at Bristol Parkway, the heyday of the "Railnet" system was a very brief period from 2000-2002.

A nice misty shot of 90033 on a TPO at Stafford (probably 1V68) as the era faded away - https://www.flickr.com/photos/nat37670/22069651818/