Mail railcar
A post railcars or Postmotorwagen outdated, sometimes package railcars called, is a railcar of the railway or tram . The vehicle is used exclusively to transport mail - referred to as rail mail in rail traffic - but has no means of transporting travelers. The purpose of postal railcars is more permissive use compared to conventional mail cars. This means that there is no need to take into account the timetables of regular trains , and there is no shunting work . In large cities in particular, post trams with their own motor vehicles used to be common, for example on the Frankfurt am Main post tram . At the Abbazianer Elektrizitäts- und Kleinbahn-Gesellschaft (AEK), founded in 1908, postal railcars used to pull regular sidecars in which passengers were carried. Post railcars also often serve as towing railcars for additional freight or passenger cars.
Typically, railcars are owned by the respective state post and do not belong to a railway company . As a rule, they are acquired at the expense of the postal service and only the maintenance is carried out by the railway company using them. The drivers are usually also hired from a railway company via a contract. In some post tram railcars, however, their own drivers were also used. Until the railroad was liberalized, the full-rail multiple units were registered with the respective (state) railroad company for legal reasons.
TGV postal multiple unit train in France
Post railcar of the Altstätten – Berneck tram on the Blonay – Chamby museum railway
Frankfurt postal railcar 501
Combined mail and luggage railcar of the Montreux-Berner Oberland-Bahn , designed as an articulated vehicle with a Jakobs bogie
