"One of the original Royal Mail trains that worked the line"
When you think of well known London attractions there will be many that spring to mind: Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, the London Eye and so on. One that perhaps you wouldn't automatically think of is the museum dedicated to London's historic underground post office railway: Mail Rail. Today, whilst on a jaunt to London for tea at the Langham, we called in to this lovely little set up for our first visit. This 2ft gauge railway originally began operating in 1927, using driverless trains which carried mail across a system which eventually encompassed 6.5 miles of track. The first mail was carried for the Christmas post of 1927, with the system continuing to operate right up until 2003. Electrified by 440V DC third rail, trains would operate up to a maximum speed of 40mph whilst out of station limits, transporting post between the sorting offices above without the need to traverse the traffic filled streets of the capital. Following closure in 2003, the line lay dormant for a period until a section was reopened as part of a special exhibition. New battery operated trains were supplied for the setup and these days you can ride on a 1km circular section of the original line...
We'd booked the train ride part of the exhibition for 11:30 and arrived in good time at the Mount Pleasant museum. The exhibition and platform area can be found beneath the gift shop, down a flight of stairs. The low clearance within the tunnels (no doubt due to the fact that the trains were driverless) has meant that the new tourist trains are also quite cramped. Much smaller and they would feel a bit claustrophobic...
An addition on the new trains is a driver who sits up front and controls the unit and the various displays along the route. Having descended into the tunnels, here we make our way to the right towards an area where old trains are stored. The tunnel to the left goes off in another direction and is no doubt part of the old more expansive system that once was. I have no reason to believe that the whole system isn't still there...
As the train rumbled its way around the route within the tunnels, various displays were put on and a commentary was played over the PA system, including interviews from those who used to work on the railway. There was also quite an interesting light show and presentation at one of the old stations, showing the path of a letter from sender to destination via the old post office railway system. After our informative ride through the tunnels, we alighted from the little green train and had a look around the museum section which included a lot of history on the original route...
Here, the green train departs again into the tunnels with tail lamp lit. The other train (a red identical twin to this one) will soon arrive on the right hand track...
After a very pleasant hour at Mail Rail we took a steady walk back to the nearest tube station before continuing our underground journey to Oxford Street ready to walk to the Langham. If you're ever in the capital and have an hour to spare, Mail Rail is well worth a look. It's always nice to support a little venture like this. You'd never know that those tunnels were there when you look at the building from outside. I wonder how few people knew that these little mail trains were rumbling around underneath London doing their job day in, day out for so many decades. At one point the railway carried 1 million items of mail everyday which is certainly an achievement! Thanks for reading all, Sam...
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