Post Office Railway (Mail Rail), past, present and future

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

They will have a very good cafe thiugh

[ChrisB]

The cafe is indeed excellent, but pricey on some items. £1.75 for a coke can, anyone?!

I'll write up my visit notes tomorrow when I'm in front of a PC keyboard, rather than an iphone keyboard. Suffice to say now that the email re booking info comes out on Monday, with the booking (and likely website crashing, IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion)) on Wednesday sometime.

The booking period is 3 months ahead, so to end of October. Dates in school holidays will be more popular than schooltime, so if you can go in later September & early October (before half-term) you are likely to have better choice.

[Gordon the Blue Engine]

I did the “Mail Train” trip to-day, and looked around The Postal Museum just up the road.  I thoroughly recommend both – the train trip is thoughtfully done with various stops for film montages (on the tunnel walls) on the 20 minute round trip.   It’s stating the obvious to point out that headroom in the train is limited – some elderly people (ie older than me) were having trouble getting themselves in and out of the train.  It was running about 10 late (which was better than my HST^▸ (High Speed Train) on the way into Paddington), which may be due to loading/unloading issues which should get sorted out as they gain experience etc.

The museum is interesting, informative and well laid out.  I beg to differ with ChrisB re the café – I bought a cellophane wrapped, tasteless cheese roll and asked for a coffee.  They gave me a number and said it would be brought to my table – taking it away with my roll wasn’t an option. 

The merchandise is mainly kid-based or London tourist tat.  Nothing serious for grown-ups interested in learning a bit more about the railway.

[ChrisB]

No take-away when I was there. Wverythinh freshly prepared & briught to your seat. Somw items were on the ouch! side of your wallet though. Sounds like its gone downhill a bit. Maybe they couldn't keep up with the orders after opening properly?

[bobm]

Had my trip to the newly re-opened museum this past week.

Interesting to note the calling pattern of the horse-drawn mail coaches in the days before the railway



The museum has a good collection of items from the Post Office's past - including the telephone side of the business before it was split off to become BT.



The highlight though is Mail Rail



I thought the underground visual presentations were good - making use of the tunnel walls as a projector screen - although the vocal commentary was a little stilted.



Not the easiest place to get photos of though!





Overall a good way to spend a couple of hours.  It wouldn't be the attraction it is without the underground ride.  So it is interesting to note the original idea was to house the museum in Swindon!  From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) (February 2011).

Plans to build a new £19m museum in Swindon have been scrapped.

The British Postal Museum and Archive (BPMA) had planned to make Swindon's Railway Works Conservation Area the home of a new British Postal Museum.

But after "undertaking extensive feasibility work" the trustees have decided not to continue with the plan.

Tim Ellison, BPMA project manager said: "Nothing against Swindon - the BPMA remain convinced that Swindon offers a fantastic option for the museum." "But unfortunately last week we had some very disappointing news regarding our funding expectation for the project and it was deemed that the project in its current form in Swindon was no longer viable," he said.

[stuving]

Interesting to note the calling pattern of the horse-drawn mail coaches in the days before the railway

It's also interesting that those Royal Mails are all evening departures. Presumably that means they travelled through the night, implying both that passengers got no sleep and that the coach was driven in the dark.

I know that wagons carrying goods would travel in the dark, but they could be led by a man with a lantern and at his pace. But mail coaches were a lot faster - so how did that work? And I'd expect a big distinction to be made in the advertising between day coaches with a stop at an inn and overnight ones.

[grahame]

From Ian Visits

Tickets Alert: Walk through the Mail Rail tunnels

Posted on 11th December 2020 Posted in London Ticket Alert, Underground London

More dates have been announced for a chance to walk through the tunnels deep under Clerkenwell once used by the Post Office?s private Mail Rail trains.

Visitors will get access to the original tunnels, tracks and station platforms of London?s 100-year-old postal railway, letting you explore parts of the railway that aren?t accessible on the Mail Rail ride.

Tickets cost GBP 55 per person, for ages 12+ only.

Walks will depart at 15.00, 15.30, 18.00 and 18.30 on the following dates:

Wednesday 6, 20 January
Wednesday 3, 17 February
Wednesday 3, 17 and 31 March

[JayMac]

A visit to Mail Rail and the Postal Museum June 16th 2023. My first visit, bobm's second.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0m2WESRikzowt5LkfEdoVUhH1soSrJJvfuAf3fHfcQsCs8JiVNER5WAzgvgjQmenml&id=100081904762207

Really enjoyed the Mail Rail ride. Excellent visuals and commentary.

[ChrisB]

My name is on one of their sleepers.

[PrestburyRoad]

My name is on one of their sleepers.

So is mine.

[Red Squirrel]

A visit to Mail Rail and the Postal Museum June 16th 2023. My first visit, bobm's second.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0m2WESRikzowt5LkfEdoVUhH1soSrJJvfuAf3fHfcQsCs8JiVNER5WAzgvgjQmenml&id=100081904762207

Really enjoyed the Mail Rail ride. Excellent visuals and commentary.

I quite enjoyed it when I visited a few months ago. I would have enjoyed it a great deal more if I were 20cm shorter - once the lid was shut, I had to crick my neck at quite an awkward angle to see anything at all. If you are over 180cm tall, maybe take a mirror?

[Trowres]

Bits off PO railway vehicles have travelled further west than Paddington:

https://www.launcestonsr.co.uk/diesel-railcar-the-gherkin

[bobm]

A visit to Mail Rail and the Postal Museum June 16th 2023. My first visit, bobm's second.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0m2WESRikzowt5LkfEdoVUhH1soSrJJvfuAf3fHfcQsCs8JiVNER5WAzgvgjQmenml&id=100081904762207

Really enjoyed the Mail Rail ride. Excellent visuals and commentary.

For some reason I cannot load the photos JayMac has posted so apologies if there is some duplication.

As mentioned I went to Mail Rail soon after it opened.  Last week's return visit was well worth it as the audio visual element has been improved enormously.













The museum itself over the road has also been updated.  There were some interesting archive films on show - including the iconic Night Mail.  There is also more to come - work is underway on a new exhibition to mark the change of monarch on our day to day postage stamps.

The visit was part of a day in London organised by my good friend and tour guide



We also went to the London Transport Museum at Acton, Westminster and rounded the day off with a memorable meal in Fleet Street!

[grahame]

On this day - 5th December (1927) - https://www.postalmuseum.org/collections/story-of-mail-rail/

The railway was finally opened on 5 December 1927 with parcels traffic running between Mount Pleasant and Paddington. Mount Pleasant to Liverpool Street opened for Christmas parcels from 19 to 24 December and then for a full parcels service from 28 December. Liverpool Street to Eastern District Office opened for parcels on 2 January 1928. Letter traffic began on 13 February with the opening of West Central District Office station, followed by Western District Office on 12 March.