Do you have mail trains in your country? In Japan, yes, but that’s in the past. When I was a kid, I often saw a mail car coupled with passenger coaches on the Japanese National Railways. They were being pulled by locomotives. I still remember that many people were working inside the mail car, but I didn’t know what’s going on at that time. Now that I think about it, they were sorting letters. The mail trains unfortunately came to an end in 1986 due to spreading aircrafts and development of the expressway network.
What happened to the mail cars after that? Most of them had been scrapped, but there are some survivors. Please look at the top photo. That’s a mail car, Unit 2555 of the Oyu 10 series owned by Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. It was built in 1971 by Kawasaki Sharyo as Unit 2058 of the Oyu 10 series. This mail car was then renovated in 1973, and renamed Unit 2555. The major modification was to install air-conditioners. As you can imagine, there were only small windows on the car, so, it was very hot inside in summer.
After operating for 13 years, Unit 2555 was retired from the track in 1986. It was luckily taken over by Central Training Center of Japan Post Company in Kunitachi City, Tokyo Metropolis. If you would like to observe this precious mail car, please visit the training center, and apply for a mail car tour. It’s free of charge.
