Our final offering for this run relates to the use of six-wheeled vans as mail bag, parcel tender, and stowage vans in LMS Travelling Post Office trains of the 1930s.

In much the same way that a steam locomotive employs a tender to carry coal and water, a mail and parcels train may require a tender to carry unsorted mail bags and parcels. These items were often picked up en route, particularly when TPO trains were marshalled at a central location from outlying areas, and as a result their use was more common on TPO services originating from the Scottish and North-Western regions. The Midland Railway constructed a number of different mail and parcel tender designs, as did the Highland Railway, and these were commonly fitted with the ubiquitous offset gangway.

Following Grouping, the LMS absorbed these vans into service and, as they became time-expired, replaced them with purpose-built LMS designs. This “one-for-one” replacement policy is evidenced by the sheer number of different Post Office designs recorded in the carriage diagram books: some 68 vehicles across 20 separate diagrams, of which just two diagrams account for over half of the total.

Fewer stowage vans were built to LMS designs than sorting vans, and most were constructed to standard LMS lengths appropriate to their intended use. Interiors were generally very spartan, with only occasional comfort items such as wardrobes or tool cupboards, lavatories, folding tables, or ovens being included. There were, however, two notable exceptions built under Stanier. One of these, the Diagram 1867 van—with its lack of interior fittings and gangway connection—forms the basis for the six-wheeled van represented in this run.