The Post Office Rail

I love it when two of my interests cross-over. In this case, the disused Royal Mail train line under London was rediscovered by some urban explorers. Don't know anything about the Mail Rail? Well, here's a little background for you from the website Silent UK website:

"Originally designed using a pneumatic system in 1855, after years of testing, tunnel construction and usage, its limitation began to show. The Post Office who were already unhappy with its high running costs, coupled with the fact the scheme only shaved four minutes from the delivery time by road decided in 1874 that they would no longer use the line, the Pneumatic Despatch Company being dissolved as the tunnels were closed. The pneumatic line would never reopen, its tunnels and depots being sold off for alternate uses and although the majority of the line was lost, small sections still remain housing cables.

Even before the demised of the Pneumatic line, several plans had been put forward recommending a similar mail delivery system, most promoting usage of electrified lines. In 1909 a committee was established to consider all the proposed schemes, eventually recommending a 2′ gauge, twin electric line to be constructed in a 70 foot deep tunnel running from the Paddington District Office to the Eastern District Office in Whitechapel Road. The line with a length of six miles and total track distance of 23 miles would run through intermediate stations at the Barrett Street, Wimpole Street, New Oxford Street, the main London sorting office at Mount Pleasant, King Edward Street and Liverpool Street.

Although the main tunnel was constructed at a depth of 70ft, the stations themselves were constructed at a much shallower depth, for two reasons. One, the mail had less distance to travel to the platforms from the surface, and two, the incline on the track as the train approached the station helped slow the trains, assisting with acceleration on the other side.

Initially the Mail Rail line ran 22 hours a day, staff working in three shifts. The two hours the line wasn’t in operation it was used by the maintenance team, with larger tasks being carried out on a Sunday when the line was closed. This service was later reduced to 19 hours a day, 286 days a year.

Although initially the system was a success, in its last years of service the line was continually loosing money. On the 7th November, 2002, Royal Mail announced the line had become uneconomical, with losses of £1.2M a day and that they planned to close it should no uses be found. This was to be the death of the Mail Rail, with the line from Mount Pleasant to the Eastern Delivery Office closing on the 21st March, 2003 and the remaining section from the Western District Office to Mount Pleasant following on the 29th. Now it just sits there. buried where light cannot reach, collecting rust, the trains sleeping silently in and around the stations, wanting to be used again."

They follow the line the whole way during the expedition, taking photographs the whole time. The most exciting bits are when they are in a station which has a still operational mail facility above it. I get a thrill when I read about being able to hear the mail carts rumbling overhead. I recommend going to their site and reading about the entire adventure.

Comments

[Danielle]

This reminds me of traveling to Skye in the late '90s. Bus service was so limited that the shops in the main town also posted the mail truck routes. A single person could hop on and ride along in the passenger seat. Unless someone else had hopped on first, of course.

[Ingrid]

Argh this is amazing! I love trains so much aswell, so it's two of my interests crossing over too! :)

[Eunice]

In the 1970's I was living in a village called Ngongataha, outside Rotorua in New Zealand. The bus to Ngongataha often picked up piles of newspapers and parcels to deliver. The driver would drop them off at "dairies" along the route. (Dairies were small grocery shops that also sold milk shakes.)

Here in Aberystwyth, some of the post vans that deliver to the tiny hamlets and farms are also small buses.