Birmingham New Street Station: lnwrbns_str1766a

Close up showing some of the several mail and parcel trollies positioned on Platform 7 ready to be loaded onto the next passenger service. The railway companies had from the outset been required by the Royal Mail to convey mails on their trains which the Royal Mail had immediately recognised as a much better alternative to carrying mail than stage coaches. It was the Railways (Conveyance of Mails) Act 1838 which became law on 14th August 1838 which obliged the railways of Great Britain to transport mail by railways at a standardised fee that established the Royal Mail's authority over this new form of transport.

The Act empowered the Postmaster-General to require the railway companies to 'convey the mails', either by special trains or scheduled ones, at such times of the day and night as he would direct; he also had power to specify the guards or postal officials to be carried. However, he could not require they be conveyed any faster than the maximum rate prescribed by that railway's own Directors for first-class trains. The railway companies were also subject to Post Office directions regarding the specifics of carriage. If required, a whole carriage was to be set aside exclusively for the post, or a separate carriage for sorting letters. The Postmaster-General could also require the mails be carried in Royal Mail coaches, not the company's carriages.

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