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A Travelling Post Office (TPO) is a postal receiving, sorting and delivery service situated on a train, usually in a specially designated carriage that is part of a passenger train. In Queensland, Australia, the service was provided from 1877 to 1932. [1]
The first TPO service in Queensland commenced in 1877 utilising the second class compartments of two composite passenger carriages on the daily Brisbane-to-Dalby train operating on the Main Line and Western railway lines. A goods van was used on the Toowoomba-to -Warwick train operating on the Southern railway line in the same year, until special 4 wheel carriages were built later that year for the service. [2] The service was extended to Roma and ultimately Charleville as the Western line was extended, and similarly on the Southern line to Stanthorpe, and then Wallangarra.
The first designated 'Mail' train in Queensland was the Brisbane-to-Mitchell day train, with the title being transferred to the overnight service in March 1888 when the line was extended to Charleville.
The first overnight service was the Sydney Mail (with First class sleeping carriage) introduced in January 1888 following the opening of the New South Wales line to Wallangarra. It was also the first purely passenger service with a TPO, until then all trains with TPOs had been 'mixed', i.e. carried goods wagons as well as passenger carriages. Second class sleepers were introduced in 1903.
In 1885, a TPO was added to the Central West railway line, ultimately extended to Longreach as the line progressively opened. A First class sleeping carriage was introduced on the twice weekly Central West Mail in 1892, departing Rockhampton at 22:00 and reaching Longreach at 17:00 the following day. Second class sleepers were added in 1895.
TPOs (and First class sleepers) were introduced to the Townsville-to-Winton service on the Great Northern line in 1899, extending to Mount Isa as that line was opened, and on the North Coast line as far as Maryborough in 1900. Second class sleepers were added to both lines in 1905.
Guards on rural trains had been paid an allowance to accept letters from isolated communities for posting at the nearest town, but the TPOs were staffed by Post Office personnel.
TPOs were withdrawn from the North Coast line in 1930 and the other services in 1932 as an economy measure. Despite the loss of the TPO carriages, the services that had hauled them continued to be called Mail Trains, the last being the Dirranbandi Mail , withdrawn from service in 1993.
Following the introduction of The Inlander and subsequent air-conditioned sleeping car services in the 1950s, wooden sleepers cascaded to trains servicing places such as Kingaroy, Monto, Clermont, Springsure, Blackall, Dirranbandi, and returned to the Mount Isa line. Wooden sleeping cars were even added to overnight mixed Rockhampton to Mackay and Townsville to Cairns trains.
The Spirit of the Outback is a long-distance passenger rail service in Queensland, Australia, operated by Queensland Rail's Traveltrain division.
The North Coast railway line (NCL) is a 1,681-kilometre (1,045 mi) 1067 mm gauge railway line in Queensland, Australia. It commences at Roma Street station, Brisbane, and largely parallels the Queensland coast to Cairns in Far North Queensland. The line is electrified between Brisbane and Rockhampton. Along the way, the 1680 km railway passes through the numerous towns and cities of eastern Queensland including Nambour, Bundaberg, Gladstone, Rockhampton, Mackay and Townsville. The line though the centre of Rockhampton runs down the middle of Denison Street.
Caledonian Sleeper is the collective name for overnight sleeper train services between London and Scotland, in the United Kingdom. It is one of only two currently operating sleeper services on the railway in the United Kingdom, the other being the Night Riviera which runs between London and Penzance.
The Silver Star was a luxury passenger train that ran overnight between Auckland and Wellington on the North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) railway of New Zealand, operated by New Zealand Railways (NZR). The train ran from Monday 6 September 1971 until Sunday 8 June 1979. It replaced the Night Limited express passenger trains which provided a faster service than the ordinary express trains, by stopping at only six intermediate stations en route and not hauling a postal (sorting) van as on previous trains.
The Sunlander was a long distance passenger rail service operated by Queensland Rail on the North Coast line between Brisbane and Cairns in Queensland between June 1953 and December 2014. It has been replaced by the Spirit of Queensland.
The Westlander is an Australian passenger train operated by Queensland Rail on the Main and Western lines between Brisbane and the outback town of Charleville.
Greyhound Australia is an Australian coach operator that ran services in all mainland states and territories until reduction of services in the 2000s.
The rail network in Queensland, Australia, was the first in the world to adopt 1,067 mm narrow gauge for a main line, and, in 2013, was claimed to the second largest narrow gauge network in the world, consists of:
The Southern railway line serves the Darling Downs region of Queensland, Australia. The 197-kilometre (122 mi) long line branches from the Western line at Toowoomba, 161 kilometres (100 mi) west of Brisbane, and proceeds south through Warwick and Stanthorpe to the New South Wales/Queensland state border at Wallangarra.
The Inlander is a passenger train that operates between Townsville and Mount Isa on the Great Northern railway line in Queensland, Australia. It was introduced by Queensland Rail on 12 February 1953 using new steel air-conditioned carriages built by Commonwealth Engineering, Rocklea.
Queensland's railway construction commenced in 1864, with the turning of the first sod of the Main Line by Lady Diamantina Bowen, the wife of Queensland's first governor Sir George Bowen at Ipswich, Queensland, Australia. A narrow gauge of 3 ft 6 in was selected due to cost savings in providing a rail link to Toowoomba. Despite being built with bridges wide enough for standard gauge, and the fact that most other lines did not require heavy earthworks, the gauge remained the Queensland system norm.
This is a list of significant railway accidents in Queensland, Australia.
The Great Northern Railway is a 1067 mm gauge railway line in Queensland, Australia. The line stretches nearly 1,000 kilometres linking the port city of Townsville, Australia to the mining town of Mount Isa in north-west Queensland. Along with a passenger service called the Inlander, it is a major freight route connecting the Mount Isa Mines to the Port of Townsville. In 2010, the line moved 5.8 million tonnes of cargo, and this is expected to increase significantly in coming years.
The Hughenden-Winton railway line was a railway line in Queensland, Australia, branching from the Mt Isa line at Hughenden and connecting to the Central West line at Winton.
The Brisbane Limited was an Australian passenger train operated by the New South Wales Government Railways between Sydney and Brisbane from 1888 until February 1990. The route is now served by an unnamed XPT service.
The Blackall and Yaraka Branch Railways are railway lines in Central West Queensland, Australia. The former branch connected the small town of Jericho on the Central Western railway line with Blackall and the latter branch connected Blackall to the even smaller town of Yaraka. Blackall was named after Sir Samuel Wensley Blackall who from 1868 to 1871 was the second Governor of Queensland.
The Western railway line is a narrow gauge railway, connecting the south-east and south-west regions of Queensland, Australia. It commences at Toowoomba, at the end of the Main Line railway from Brisbane, and extends west 810 km to Cunnamulla, passing through the major towns of Dalby, Roma and Charleville, although services on the 184 km section from Westgate to Cunnamulla have been suspended since 2011. The Queensland Government was the first railway operator in the world to adopt narrow gauge for a main line, and this remains the system-wide gauge.
The Central Western railway line is a railway line in Queensland, Australia. It was opened in a series of sections between 1867 and 1928. It commences at Rockhampton and extends west 863 kilometres (536 mi) to Winton.
The Capricornian was a passenger train that operated in Queensland, Australia between 1970 and 1993. It travelled on the North Coast line between Brisbane and Rockhampton.
The Midlander was a passenger train that operated in Queensland, Australia between 1954 and 1993. It travelled on the Central west line between Rockhampton and Winton.
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