Mail on the Rails
The development of railways in the mid-nineteenth century ended the Post Office's reliance on mail coaches. Transport by the rail network made distribution much faster and the possibility of sorting on the train promised even greater benefits.
The Royal Mail Carriage on the Dublin - Cork - Killarney line of the Great Southern and Western Railways (GSWR) in 1885. Note the oil lamps on the roof.
The Express Mail Car in 1925. Note this very early use of An Post on the carriage and the net on the right for catching mail bags en route.
By the 1890s the use of special sorting carriages had become common on several Irish routes and the TPO remained an important element in mail distribution until the mid-twentieth century. Thereafter, the closure of many lines and a belief that road transport was the way of the future led to a steady decline in the use of TPOs with the final routes - Dublin/Cork and Dublin/Galway ceasing operations in January 1994.