London’s Best-kept Secret: The Post Office (London) Railway
A talk by Cyril Parsons - March 2018
At the General Meeting of ACU3A on 20 March, members were given a sneak preview of the forthcoming outing to the Postal Museum in London, which was opened by the Princess Royal on 13 June 2017.
Cyril’s talk traced the history of Rail Mail – a sequence of tunnels constructed 70ft beneath the streets of London between Paddington and Whitechapel during the early twentieth century to accommodate purpose-built electric trains, thus replacing the plethora of horse-drawn wagons travelling between numerous sorting offices throughout the city. When the railway was completed, there were 23 miles of track and 8 stations for collecting mail to be sorted at the central depot in Whitechapel.
Apart from the railway itself, the complex housed extensive workshops to keep the whole system running 24 hours a day. Battery-powered emergency vehicles were used to recover any broken-down trains.
Unfortunately, after three years of operation, certain design-flaws became apparent, notably excessive wear on the rails and train wheels and in 1927 a second generation of electric train was launched, followed in 1980 by yet a third design. In 1987, the underground rail complex received an Engineering Heritage Award. However, in 1996 Royal Mail ceased to channel its activity through the major London termini, notably Paddington, and the whole operation was moved to the Princess Royal Distribution Centre at Willesden.
Enter Boris Johnson, Mayor of London! He was apparently instrumental in promoting the idea of establishing a Museum to preserve the history of Rail Mail and in 2012 plans were announced for its development. In 2014, with a £4.5 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, a Visitor Centre was established and in 2016 work started on creating the Museum and restoring the track to provide rides for visitors. The complex now houses five zones depicting various eras of Mail Rail activity.
After such an interesting preview, I feel sure that those members who are booked to visit the Museum later in the year are now looking forward to it with even greater anticipation of a fascinating day out.
Janet Cato – March 2018
Cyril’s talk traced the history of Rail Mail – a sequence of tunnels constructed 70ft beneath the streets of London between Paddington and Whitechapel during the early twentieth century to accommodate purpose-built electric trains, thus replacing the plethora of horse-drawn wagons travelling between numerous sorting offices throughout the city. When the railway was completed, there were 23 miles of track and 8 stations for collecting mail to be sorted at the central depot in Whitechapel.
Apart from the railway itself, the complex housed extensive workshops to keep the whole system running 24 hours a day. Battery-powered emergency vehicles were used to recover any broken-down trains.
Unfortunately, after three years of operation, certain design-flaws became apparent, notably excessive wear on the rails and train wheels and in 1927 a second generation of electric train was launched, followed in 1980 by yet a third design. In 1987, the underground rail complex received an Engineering Heritage Award. However, in 1996 Royal Mail ceased to channel its activity through the major London termini, notably Paddington, and the whole operation was moved to the Princess Royal Distribution Centre at Willesden.
Enter Boris Johnson, Mayor of London! He was apparently instrumental in promoting the idea of establishing a Museum to preserve the history of Rail Mail and in 2012 plans were announced for its development. In 2014, with a £4.5 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, a Visitor Centre was established and in 2016 work started on creating the Museum and restoring the track to provide rides for visitors. The complex now houses five zones depicting various eras of Mail Rail activity.
After such an interesting preview, I feel sure that those members who are booked to visit the Museum later in the year are now looking forward to it with even greater anticipation of a fascinating day out.
Janet Cato – March 2018