I was the person putting you and Ammy at the front of the train (in the overall). If I remember correctly there was a lot of people for that train so ironically I was going to get you guys to sit together on a single seat since you're both thin! 😅😁
Haha this is amazing! Well in that case thank you again Kamil for letting us sit at the front :) And I hope my diva behaviour didn't stop anyone getting on the train. I think luckily there were some more thin people behind us...
@@TheTimTraveller my pleasure and I remember specifically that everyone got on that train perfectly, so you're in the clear from the ride controller 😁👍
Are they going to eventually open up the entire line? This is one of the things that I would look forward to doing when I get to London and the longer the line, the more I would look forward to doing it. This is such a unique thing that if you made it as long as you can, I think it could become a major tourist attraction. Oh, and why not show Tim's two videos about it in its lobby. ;-)
I'm glad that the postal service had the sense to maintain the system after the shutdown. It would be a terrible waste to lose such an important piece of London history. Thanks.
There are sound reasons for maintaining the tunnels. First there are roads and properties above it, second it runs very close the the underground. It will need to be maintained for a very long time.
@@heysemberthkingdom-brunel5041 Well, the system in Munich wasn't nearly as extensive, and was shut down in 1988. Wouldn't have made much sense for it to be kept in working order.
In 1995, at the sorting center in which I worked, there was a competition, and I was one of the winners of a trip to London, which included a guided visit to the Mount Pleasant Mail center. That was then I discovered the history of the center (once a prison, not making this up), and the Postal Underground. Thank you for reminding me of a fond memory.
@@Tim091 No. I live and work near Paris. And it was the first time I took the Chunnel to get to london. Ae trip involved more than that : changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, a cruise on the Thames, seeing the main monuments, the usual, then.
Bear in mind that in the times of Churchill, he could exchange several messages a day with his wife, all carried by the Royal Mail which provided residential addresses in London with several deliveries a day, so you could hold a conversation by mail.
That explains the US 2020 election was able to approve and return postal votes on the same day, albeit after the election had happened. The US just has a lot of postal deliveries!
@@dizzy2020 Yes, but in Jane Austen's country towns, you sent your servants round with the invitations. There was no Royal Mail local collection or delivery, except for express messages, and you had to pay on delivery. The Penny Post was still decades away. If you are familiar with "Emma" you will remember the fuss over Jane Fairfax walking to the Post Office in the rain to collect her letters.
In ancient times I bought a CD of Synthesiser hits (all covers). One of the tracks was called Electricity and I have only just learned today that it's an OMD track. ruclips.net/video/XXNF4KoVyoU/видео.html
I was part of the team who renovated the rails down in the tunnels. We ripped out the centre rail, re laid the worn out curves and fixed in place many of the turnouts so that they can't be moved. The back to back turnout at the top of the ramp is mostly my handiwork. We also put in the inspection ramp at the bottom of the incline.
I like how everyone is making Tube videos at the moment because Northern Line to Battersea! and here you are making a Tube video about the cute little trains in the Mail Rail lines! Love that!
As far as I understand, it was the other way round - London was inspired by Chicago. (I only found this out while researching the video. And now I really want to do the Chicago tunnels!)
@Jacob Lorenz: Great Chicago Leak, Apr1992. Errantly driven replacement pilings near the Kinzie St span disrupted the tunnel beneath the Chicago River. After attending a DePaul-Loop seminar the previous weekend, my sightseeing schedule was thoroughly upended by what ultimately became this ~$2B man made disaster. Original flood doors, designed to prevent river water from overwhelming the underground network in this manner, had been removed years earlier.
@@TheTimTraveller I wish you could clone yourself and have a version of you that lives in the USA and does these types of vids for stuff over here. There's probably so many odd or hidden things that people don't know about here just like you've proven there are in Europe
And soon after they closed the underground mailrail, they closed down the overground mail trains. The depot at Peterborough posted the poem by W H Auden on their door on the last day of working. I was a temp driver for the Royal Mail at the time, and managed to set foot on a mail train with a york full of mail. Very sad to see both these systems go.
This bought back some great memories. More people travelled on that rail than you think. When I joined RM in the '80s the initiation was to ride from WCDO (Holborn) to the Western (Rathbone Pl.).
When I was younger, my uncle was a lorry driver, and he regularly drove mail from where we live (Manningtree) to Mount Pleasant on a Friday evening. He used to take me and my brother down with him sometimes, we loved it! He was friends with one of the duty managers in Mount Pleasant, so we got to go down and look at the railway and trains going past! We always wanted to ride on one, and now we can! Awesome video ☺️
That was amazing, when I was a kid {now 65} I discovered that Sydney Central Station {Australia} had more than two levels to their station. While no one was watching I ducked under the barriers for a closer look. Before I could get too far down the stairs the voice of authority (my Dad) echoed down the staircase> Get back up here before I give you a clout behind the ear. It was very exciting but never gave much thought until watching your doco! Every city has so many hidden secrets, Thank you.
I know you kind of touched on it with the old name of the Central Line, and apologies if other people have left this comment already, but it helps to have the historical context in mind that there wasn’t The London Underground back then. This was just another independent underground railway just like all the others. It was just the first freight-only line, in fact something there was a great desired to have more of (until the age of automobile dominance). The post office underground railway was built in the midst of that kind of thinking among men who set up railway companies, and that helps it seem a bit less bonkers in my opinion.
@@TheTimTraveller I just noticed a typo, dangit :’) But yeah, it was a pretty common idea for a few decades afterwards, there were other failed proposals for underground goods lines for certain industries, and postwar there was for a time consideration given to putting ALL the railways underground, including all the freight, to free up the surface for people, buildings, shops, and so on. But by the time motorways arrived, all of that thinking was killed, and they’d barely built any of those postwar plans at that point (mainly just the Jubilee Line, which took a lot longer yet to finish).
@@TheTimTraveller I’m sorry Tim but when you played post man pat in the explanation of the mail line I started to block out your voice as I relived my child hood.
It's been so long since Tim's been back in the UK, I'll bet his first impulse at the Post Office museum was to say, "Merci pour parler anglais, mais je comprends parfaitment français." "Sir...this is London. We normally speak English here."
The Mail Rail was/is the only operating 2 foot Guage line out side of Wales! Also,there was in Chicago,a system of 2 foot Guage tunnels,which also carried the mail to the various Chicago terminals! Both systems were unique to their respective cities,and as an addendum,the track layout at Mount Pleasant,duplicates Park Street Station,on the Green Line in Boston! Those double loops are extremely distinctive[ See Boston Street Railway Association]! Thanks for the update on the current situation of that interesting Line! ( And definitely,if you want to talk about tight clearances,that Tube line takes the cake,and the icing too!🎂🍰🍪🍩) THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!
Ooh! Thanks for the comment Robert - I only discovered the Chicago system when I was researching this video, and I read that London had stolen the idea from there, but I didn't know that they copied an entire station. That is an excellent fact :D p.s. obviously I now REALLY want to visit the Chicago tunnels
I truly appreciate how you include information in your videos about the accessibility of the places you go. I have several friends & family members with mobility issues, so this is very personal to me. It's very rare for anyone who does travel videos or blogs to include that kind of info.
I knew about this railway as a young lad in the 1950s. My Dad had collected a weekly magazine published in 1933 called Railway Wonders of the World, and had them bound into 2 large volumes. There is an extensive article in it about the London post office railway, showing the workshops etc. You can find a scanned version of this on-line. We still have the books to this day. There were others in a similar format: Enigneering Wonders of the World, Shipping Wonders of the World, Countries of the World and Marvels of the Universe all published in the early 1930s. We have them all.
I recall there was an idea when the line originally closed to turn the trains into railcars for use on narrow gauge heritage railways. I guess that plan has fallen through.
Most, if not all, of the remaining trains are parked up as soon as you exit the Mount Pleasant complex in a sort of conga line stretching out towards King Edward Building. It looks amazing and goes on for ages.
I've seen one of the original mail cars running at the Beeches light railway. They're also converting some of the bogies and building a DMU at the Launceston railway in Cornwall.
Love the piano version of OMD's "Electricity" as you talk about the fully electric railway. You're so often praised for your piano covers in your videos, and this is finally a song I recognize! (as I'm not really a pop music expert, but I'm fond of OMD!) :-)
I only recognized "Please Mr. Postman" (from around 6:40).* But figures he worked a few other fitting ones in there! (I saw the Postman Pat theme mentioned in other comments, but I don't think it was ever on US TV when I was at an age to watch it.) * originally by the Marvelettes (and one of the first Motown hits), but also covered by the Beatles and the Carpenters
I was lucky enough to visit the Mail Rail at Mount Pleasant as a kid in the 1980s when it was still in active use. Naturally my first question was "can we go on it?", and was very disappointed to learn that we could not. A couple of years ago when I found out it had opened for passengers, I was straight down there! In my 40s but still that same kid at heart...
Decades ago I took a test to work for the US Post Office Department. Mail in the USA used to be carried by train; air mail had separate stamps and cost more. Even though the exam's questions were no longer relevant, many had to do with routing mail by train. For example, "mail for Binghamton goes through Syracuse, how do you get mail to Syracuse of Binghamton is closed?" Thank heavens we didn't have an underground system to deal with in the cities where I carried mail.
Pneumatic tube networks were extensively used in major eastern seaboard cities, 1908-53. Bos/NYC/Phl/Bal/DC plus Chi/StL. Greetings from a retired Cleveland carrier. Great uncle worked rail mail between Philly/Harrisburg.
@@ltmundy1164 Great to meet you. I was one of those college students who worked summers for the PO Department (before it became the Postal Service). Remember all of us? I carried in Los Altos, Menlo Park, and Redwood City. Oh, the stories all of us carriers have, even if we were temps. My only experience with pneumatic tubes was in department stores in the 1950s. As a little kid, I was fascinated with the technology.
@@Zeyev: Counter intuitively, notice how the PO/USPS has historically embraced technological innovation. User fee services: aka stamps. Interurban postal roads: US highway system. Rail mail. Air mail. Automated high speed mail processing. Traveled to L'Enfant Plaza decades ago, attempting to encourage local wireless/broadband ISP service in areas underserved/unserved by major telecoms. Excess bandwidth from local servers/high speed mail processing equipment, that are primarily used during off peak hours, could especially work in communities where cable TV wasn't available/profitable. Pneumatics are still used today in banking/casino cash operations, as well as centralized pharma/inventory control at larger medical centers.
@@ltmundy1164 Thanks for such a full discussion. Two questions 1) Why aren't you in charge? 2) Do you think it was a good idea to change the funding model from that of the Post Office Department (appropriated funding) to that of the US Postal Service (primarily reimbursable)? [I'm not even going to mention the pension burden the Congress came up with.)
To think that instead of investing some money to keep this system up-to-date they decided that instead they'd rather send dozens of trucks a day onto already congested streets; I'm sure that by expanding the network to include other locations and with the increase in parcel traffic over the last decade it could still be a viable and efficient service. Also top music choice, I wasn't expecting to hear a piano Carpenters cover in this video.
they closed the sorting offices, had nothing to do with keeping it updated, the old buildings were too small for sorting machines and too close to the massive mount pleasant, they had to move the offices to deal with urban sprawl, and digging new tunnels to extend it would be far to costly and difficult, until recently the Government took all the profits from the company but didn't invest anything in its infrastructure, so its struggled on using outdated practices
@somedeveloperblokey If you manage to send a parcel by email, then yes, it would blow my mind. But something tells me that this is not and will never be possible.
When VW got it into their head to build a "luxury car" (for context, the VW concern owns Audi and has ties to Porsche - two already established luxury car brands. VW is short for "people's car" in German and thus a VW luxury car is something of a self-contradiction), they furthermore got it into their head that their factory for this new car was supposed to be a "representative" downtown location instead of a more traditional suburban or rural factory. So they built one right in the center of Dresden on the edge of a giant park literally called "Großer Garten" ("Great Garden"). The city, however, not being total morons, demanded that VW reduce truck traffic through the inner city to a minimum and thus most parts were delivered by four specially built cargo trams from the train station to the plant via the Dresden tramway network. Of course the "VW luxury car" idea was the inevitable flop and while they used the cargo trams again for the subsequent electric car production in the same factory, that too has since ceased...
Hope they keep on preserving the rest of the line. You never know what use it may be needed for in the future. Many are regretting now we closed down so many railways in the 1960's. I was in San Sebastian, northern Spain a couple of months ago and they have repurposed quite a long railway tunnel beneath a hill in the centre of the city to be a cycle path/footpath which is great for commuters because as well as being a shortcut, it also keeps you dry if it is raining!
Just wanted to tell you that I really enjoy your videos! I love Europe and want to visit so much, but I fear I would never be able to afford a trip there. You give me the experience of a private tour! Thank you so much 😊
I visited this a few years ago. A particular point that stuck in my mind is the portion of the museum which talks about disruptions to the mail and mentions the Dublin GPO being out of action in 1916 but completely fails to mention *why*. It's a really impressive piece of just quietly gliding over the unpleasant bits. Also there's a pneumatic tube system that you can play with, leading to all kinds of entertaining stuff getting stuck halfway through.
These videos are like chamomile tea with a dash of hashish, if such a thing exists. They perk me up and make me relax expecting a better world in the morning.
A friend of mine worked for the Royal Mail in the late 90s early 2000s and was bundled onto to one of these trains as an initiation 'ceremony' when he started.
I used to love going to museums with my Dad. This was the last one we went to in 2019 before he passed away a year later. He was a fountain of knowledge, but particularly war history.
Truly excellent video! I’m always fascinated by these little-known places that remain hidden but unused under our feet. Your subtle music was fantastic, too!
Thanks for sharing! I always enjoy coming across your videos at random, especially on nights like tonight where I'm bored outta my mind and needed a good distraction.
I knew all about this railway but watched your video all the way through because I love your zany commentaries and observations. Thanks Tim for another very entertaining video.
Thanks for this video. I saw it when you first released it and made it my mission to see it when I went to London recently. It was a real highlight of my trip and my partner who is not usually into this stuff also enjoyed it
Awesome video, I was aware of this line from being a train geek !!! However I was not aware that it still operated as a museum and had rides for ppl who would like to partake in a small piece of history. Just added it to my bucket list :)
I've been meaning to visit Mail Rail since they opened, but I don't get to London often, and then covid hit, so it's going to be a while yet. Also, if you are interested in the history of the use of trains by the postal service, several heritage railways have preserved "Travelling Post Office" trains, which I've always found interesting (especially since they had actual letter boxes on the side). I seem to recall seeing one at Bridgnorth station a few years ago. Might be worth a nosy.
idk know why but i frecking love this channel i have been watching you for a while now and all your content is about boring stuff but the way you present it makes it so enjoyable that its just lovely. thank you for the content
I was on this railway in January 2018. I was in a hotel just up the road and visited the Mail Museum first and then traveled on the Post Office Railway or Rail Mail (under Mount Pleasant sorting centre) to begin a wonderful Winter Holiday. This brings back some memory of my travel on Mail Rail and I would like another visit. Wonderful Information. Keep Up the good work. 💌🚇😊
Outstanding as usual :) And the piano parts are getting better and better! Last but not least, very happy that you finally switched to OpenStreetMap ;)
I realize times have changed quite a bit in that the need to transport mail by rail is no longer viable. But as a Londoner, I have to wonder why this structure isn't incorporated for e-commerce in some way? Imagine how many delivery vans for Amazon or otherwise could be taken off London streets if things were taken underground into the centre of London
Because it costs more to do so than to have one diesel van drive around killing probably a few kids along the way and some migrant worker hauling all the cargo himself working 12 hours a day for 5 pence an hour.
For the non-UK watchers, the music which starts at 2:58 is the theme tune to an old children's TV show called "Postman Pat", and the music at 4:45 is a version of "Electricity" by UK band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark -- Tim's usual musical humour showing again!
I used to work at the Royal Mail and they have a platform and dedicated mail train for the Scottish Distribution Centre (in Wishaw) that I was often loading with the yorks heading to England and London specifically so they do still use private overground trains. I was mostly doing Amazon returns scanning until covid hit and the Glasgow sorting office punted a huge load of sorting our way for social distancing. Then I quit because of health reasons and not getting any shifts with their new system but it was pretty interesting to learn the inner workings of things while I was there.
Very interesting! My Dad worked at Mount Pleasant in the 50's/60's as well as EDO (Eastern District Office) at Whitechapel and often talked about the TPO (Travelling Post Office) as he called it. Your film brought back lovely memories. Must have a trip to London and have a ride!
Cant help but feel like, with the current push towards using mainline terminals for more parcels and last mile deliveries, mail rail may be required for use again in the future.....
We watched this last night. Wills is obsessed with the underground so this is now definitely on our to do list. Thanks for sharing. Great video. We like your sense of humour x
Fantastic stuff, Tim. I went down there pre pandemic with the kids - it’s fascinating. I reckon with all the parcels these days, there’d be a use for it!
Great video Tim - I'm interested where you found the image you used for the sorting offices on the map at 6:07 - it looks identical to the delivery office I work in, at West Derby in Liverpool - so I was wondering if the offices were built to a pattern in the 50s or if this is just an image of my office that came up on creative commons or similar for "royal mail office"!
Quick Google and I've answered my own question - found the image on wikimedia and it is my office in Liverpool - very small world, I was driving one of the vans parked in that photo about 5 hours before you posted this video!
Haha yes - can confirm it is the West Derby one! I chose it because out of all the Royal Mail Delivery Offices on wikimedia, it was the one that looked most like a Royal Mail Delivery Office :D. Royal Mail sign on the wall, red vans parked outside, can't go wrong with that.
Been meaning to ride this since it was first announced, but have yet to do so. Been fascinated by it since I read about it in a Ladybird book as a child in the 70s.
It's great that they've opened this to the public now. I recall reading a few years ago on a forum about some cheeky scamps who sneaked in to explore the mail rail stations and tunnels when the public were very much NOT allowed to be in there. It may have been just after they mothballed it.
I know you've used it before, but your piano rendition of OMD's Electricity to illustrate the unmanned trains being "controlled centrally by operators using a switchboard" fits in so nicely.
Visited here a couple of years ago. (Before pandemic!) great fun, really enjoyed it. (Almost as much as you obviously did!) well made video, and well narrated. 👍
I would really like this whole system to be refurbished and opened again. Seeing how cool it looked just on the one station, there could be hours long tours of the diffrent post offices with the mail train to connect each one. This kind of interactive museum is just brilliant!
Tim that piano rendition of a certain postman with his cat is incredible, could we have a full version of it? If so thanks. I always watch this video and have actually ridden on this line myself and think its really cool. I think they should extend it and use it as a proper railway where they could alight at other stations and take a look around because they've still got the old track and stations in place
So technically you visited all the stations (that is open), the least used station and the most used station. So how long was the platform, was were a functioning help point, bike rack, and did the plastic bag in the bin, sway in the wind (draft)?
Great video Tim thanks for sharing I really think that trip would be both interesting and in a weird way quite fun. Am absolutely enjoying your work thanks again. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
Geoff: Battersea Power Station Station
Jago: Battersea Power Station Station Station
Tim: MAIL RAIL :)
The train line triumvirate has spoken, Battersea Power Station Station is only 2/3rds of the excitement to be had today!
I have been mistaken for a mailbag in the past.
I was the person putting you and Ammy at the front of the train (in the overall). If I remember correctly there was a lot of people for that train so ironically I was going to get you guys to sit together on a single seat since you're both thin! 😅😁
Haha this is amazing! Well in that case thank you again Kamil for letting us sit at the front :) And I hope my diva behaviour didn't stop anyone getting on the train. I think luckily there were some more thin people behind us...
You are a celebrity now!
@@TheTimTraveller my pleasure and I remember specifically that everyone got on that train perfectly, so you're in the clear from the ride controller 😁👍
Are they going to eventually open up the entire line? This is one of the things that I would look forward to doing when I get to London and the longer the line, the more I would look forward to doing it. This is such a unique thing that if you made it as long as you can, I think it could become a major tourist attraction.
Oh, and why not show Tim's two videos about it in its lobby. ;-)
Of course someone who works at a place like this knows about your channel! Priceless thanks Kamil!
I'm glad that the postal service had the sense to maintain the system after the shutdown. It would be a terrible waste to lose such an important piece of London history.
Thanks.
Munich had a similar system of which basically nothing remains...
There are sound reasons for maintaining the tunnels. First there are roads and properties above it, second it runs very close the the underground. It will need to be maintained for a very long time.
You love to see it.
@@heysemberthkingdom-brunel5041 Well, the system in Munich wasn't nearly as extensive, and was shut down in 1988. Wouldn't have made much sense for it to be kept in working order.
@@leDespicable why?
In 1995, at the sorting center in which I worked, there was a competition, and I was one of the winners of a trip to London, which included a guided visit to the Mount Pleasant Mail center. That was then I discovered the history of the center (once a prison, not making this up), and the Postal Underground. Thank you for reminding me of a fond memory.
From looking at the picture of Mount Pleasant, I was not sure its days as a prison were in the past...
Yeah, honestly the building looks like a prison.
@@Tim091 No. I live and work near Paris. And it was the first time I took the Chunnel to get to london. Ae trip involved more than that : changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, a cruise on the Thames, seeing the main monuments, the usual, then.
Bear in mind that in the times of Churchill, he could exchange several messages a day with his wife, all carried by the Royal Mail which provided residential addresses in London with several deliveries a day, so you could hold a conversation by mail.
I believe that in the 1900s there may have been 6 deliveries a day at least in London. And 4 per day into the 1950s.
I remembered that from a Jeeves and Wooster story.
In Sherlock Holmes and Poirot novels, the post always seems like steampunk emails.
That explains the US 2020 election was able to approve and return postal votes on the same day, albeit after the election had happened. The US just has a lot of postal deliveries!
@@dizzy2020 Yes, but in Jane Austen's country towns, you sent your servants round with the invitations. There was no Royal Mail local collection or delivery, except for express messages, and you had to pay on delivery. The Penny Post was still decades away. If you are familiar with "Emma" you will remember the fuss over Jane Fairfax walking to the Post Office in the rain to collect her letters.
Felt the musical choices here were inevitable.
In ancient times I bought a CD of Synthesiser hits (all covers). One of the tracks was called Electricity and I have only just learned today that it's an OMD track. ruclips.net/video/XXNF4KoVyoU/видео.html
@@bruzie900 The Tim Traveller loves that song....
Shame The Box Tops - The Letter wasn’t used but can’t really complain, as brilliant as ever.
@@bruzie900
OMD's "Messages" would have been more appropriate, IMO.
Carpenter's Please Mr Postman is also in the background
This video got 'posted' at the right time
The key to mail jokes is in the delivery.
... and it was first class.
I was part of the team who renovated the rails down in the tunnels. We ripped out the centre rail, re laid the worn out curves and fixed in place many of the turnouts so that they can't be moved. The back to back turnout at the top of the ramp is mostly my handiwork.
We also put in the inspection ramp at the bottom of the incline.
I like how everyone is making Tube videos at the moment because Northern Line to Battersea! and here you are making a Tube video about the cute little trains in the Mail Rail lines! Love that!
Another Jago Hazzard fan?
@@kutter_ttl6786 And Geoff!
We are not here to see any of that
@@kutter_ttl6786 We should lobby Jago to make a vid of this.
@@turbo.panther It's one I'd like to cover at some point...
Chicago was inspired by this, and built almost 60 miles of tunnels just for packages and shipping for delivery all over the city.
As far as I understand, it was the other way round - London was inspired by Chicago.
(I only found this out while researching the video. And now I really want to do the Chicago tunnels!)
@@TheTimTraveller can you please do a video about a weird Museum in London
Couldn't have had the Chicago Loop Flood without it!
@Jacob Lorenz: Great Chicago Leak, Apr1992. Errantly driven replacement pilings near the Kinzie St span disrupted the tunnel beneath the Chicago River. After attending a DePaul-Loop seminar the previous weekend, my sightseeing schedule was thoroughly upended by what ultimately became this ~$2B man made disaster. Original flood doors, designed to prevent river water from overwhelming the underground network in this manner, had been removed years earlier.
@@TheTimTraveller I wish you could clone yourself and have a version of you that lives in the USA and does these types of vids for stuff over here. There's probably so many odd or hidden things that people don't know about here just like you've proven there are in Europe
And soon after they closed the underground mailrail, they closed down the overground mail trains. The depot at Peterborough posted the poem by W H Auden on their door on the last day of working. I was a temp driver for the Royal Mail at the time, and managed to set foot on a mail train with a york full of mail. Very sad to see both these systems go.
This bought back some great memories. More people travelled on that rail than you think. When I joined RM in the '80s the initiation was to ride from WCDO (Holborn) to the Western (Rathbone Pl.).
When I was younger, my uncle was a lorry driver, and he regularly drove mail from where we live (Manningtree) to Mount Pleasant on a Friday evening. He used to take me and my brother down with him sometimes, we loved it! He was friends with one of the duty managers in Mount Pleasant, so we got to go down and look at the railway and trains going past! We always wanted to ride on one, and now we can! Awesome video ☺️
That was amazing, when I was a kid {now 65} I discovered that Sydney Central Station {Australia} had more than two levels to their station. While no one was watching I ducked under the barriers for a closer look. Before I could get too far down the stairs the voice of authority (my Dad) echoed down the staircase> Get back up here before I give you a clout behind the ear. It was very exciting but never gave much thought until watching your doco! Every city has so many hidden secrets, Thank you.
I know you kind of touched on it with the old name of the Central Line, and apologies if other people have left this comment already, but it helps to have the historical context in mind that there wasn’t The London Underground back then. This was just another independent underground railway just like all the others. It was just the first freight-only line, in fact something there was a great desired to have more of (until the age of automobile dominance). The post office underground railway was built in the midst of that kind of thinking among men who set up railway companies, and that helps it seem a bit less bonkers in my opinion.
This is a great point, thank you for making it!
@@TheTimTraveller I just noticed a typo, dangit :’)
But yeah, it was a pretty common idea for a few decades afterwards, there were other failed proposals for underground goods lines for certain industries, and postwar there was for a time consideration given to putting ALL the railways underground, including all the freight, to free up the surface for people, buildings, shops, and so on.
But by the time motorways arrived, all of that thinking was killed, and they’d barely built any of those postwar plans at that point (mainly just the Jubilee Line, which took a lot longer yet to finish).
@@TheTimTraveller I’m sorry Tim but when you played post man pat in the explanation of the mail line I started to block out your voice as I relived my child hood.
It's been so long since Tim's been back in the UK, I'll bet his first impulse at the Post Office museum was to say, "Merci pour parler anglais, mais je comprends parfaitment français." "Sir...this is London. We normally speak English here."
"You're about 600 years too late."
The Mail Rail was/is the only operating 2 foot Guage line out side of Wales! Also,there was in Chicago,a system of 2 foot Guage tunnels,which also carried the mail to the various Chicago terminals! Both systems were unique to their respective cities,and as an addendum,the track layout at Mount Pleasant,duplicates Park Street Station,on the Green Line in Boston! Those double loops are extremely distinctive[ See Boston Street Railway Association]! Thanks for the update on the current situation of that interesting Line! ( And definitely,if you want to talk about tight clearances,that Tube line takes the cake,and the icing too!🎂🍰🍪🍩) THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!
Ooh! Thanks for the comment Robert - I only discovered the Chicago system when I was researching this video, and I read that London had stolen the idea from there, but I didn't know that they copied an entire station. That is an excellent fact :D
p.s. obviously I now REALLY want to visit the Chicago tunnels
I truly appreciate how you include information in your videos about the accessibility of the places you go. I have several friends & family members with mobility issues, so this is very personal to me. It's very rare for anyone who does travel videos or blogs to include that kind of info.
I knew about this railway as a young lad in the 1950s. My Dad had collected a weekly magazine published in 1933 called Railway Wonders of the World, and had them bound into 2 large volumes. There is an extensive article in it about the London post office railway, showing the workshops etc. You can find a scanned version of this on-line. We still have the books to this day. There were others in a similar format: Enigneering Wonders of the World, Shipping Wonders of the World, Countries of the World and Marvels of the Universe all published in the early 1930s. We have them all.
I recall there was an idea when the line originally closed to turn the trains into railcars for use on narrow gauge heritage railways. I guess that plan has fallen through.
Most, if not all, of the remaining trains are parked up as soon as you exit the Mount Pleasant complex in a sort of conga line stretching out towards King Edward Building. It looks amazing and goes on for ages.
Please do a video of it 🙏🙏🙏
I'm glad you saw this, because if you hadn't I would have asked you to.
I've seen one of the original mail cars running at the Beeches light railway. They're also converting some of the bogies and building a DMU at the Launceston railway in Cornwall.
Weird this video is about Mail rail ... but there is "femail" driver...
Love the piano version of OMD's "Electricity" as you talk about the fully electric railway. You're so often praised for your piano covers in your videos, and this is finally a song I recognize! (as I'm not really a pop music expert, but I'm fond of OMD!) :-)
Well spotted (eared?). I got all the piano tunes right for a change- so happy!
I only recognized "Please Mr. Postman" (from around 6:40).* But figures he worked a few other fitting ones in there! (I saw the Postman Pat theme mentioned in other comments, but I don't think it was ever on US TV when I was at an age to watch it.)
* originally by the Marvelettes (and one of the first Motown hits), but also covered by the Beatles and the Carpenters
The "Hello and alright" was a real shock to the system. Always been fascinated with the Post Office Railway. Thoroughly enjoyed the video
I was lucky enough to visit the Mail Rail at Mount Pleasant as a kid in the 1980s when it was still in active use. Naturally my first question was "can we go on it?", and was very disappointed to learn that we could not. A couple of years ago when I found out it had opened for passengers, I was straight down there! In my 40s but still that same kid at heart...
Decades ago I took a test to work for the US Post Office Department. Mail in the USA used to be carried by train; air mail had separate stamps and cost more. Even though the exam's questions were no longer relevant, many had to do with routing mail by train. For example, "mail for Binghamton goes through Syracuse, how do you get mail to Syracuse of Binghamton is closed?" Thank heavens we didn't have an underground system to deal with in the cities where I carried mail.
Pneumatic tube networks were extensively used in major eastern seaboard cities, 1908-53. Bos/NYC/Phl/Bal/DC plus Chi/StL. Greetings from a retired Cleveland carrier. Great uncle worked rail mail between Philly/Harrisburg.
@@ltmundy1164 Great to meet you. I was one of those college students who worked summers for the PO Department (before it became the Postal Service). Remember all of us? I carried in Los Altos, Menlo Park, and Redwood City. Oh, the stories all of us carriers have, even if we were temps.
My only experience with pneumatic tubes was in department stores in the 1950s. As a little kid, I was fascinated with the technology.
@@Zeyev: Counter intuitively, notice how the PO/USPS has historically embraced technological innovation. User fee services: aka stamps. Interurban postal roads: US highway system. Rail mail. Air mail. Automated high speed mail processing.
Traveled to L'Enfant Plaza decades ago, attempting to encourage local wireless/broadband ISP service in areas underserved/unserved by major telecoms. Excess bandwidth from local servers/high speed mail processing equipment, that are primarily used during off peak hours, could especially work in communities where cable TV wasn't available/profitable.
Pneumatics are still used today in banking/casino cash operations, as well as centralized pharma/inventory control at larger medical centers.
@@ltmundy1164 Thanks for such a full discussion. Two questions 1) Why aren't you in charge? 2) Do you think it was a good idea to change the funding model from that of the Post Office Department (appropriated funding) to that of the US Postal Service (primarily reimbursable)? [I'm not even going to mention the pension burden the Congress came up with.)
Thank you for always adding tidbits about accessibility in your videos, it means a lot. Travel should be for everyone!
To think that instead of investing some money to keep this system up-to-date they decided that instead they'd rather send dozens of trucks a day onto already congested streets; I'm sure that by expanding the network to include other locations and with the increase in parcel traffic over the last decade it could still be a viable and efficient service.
Also top music choice, I wasn't expecting to hear a piano Carpenters cover in this video.
Lorry drivers are "cheap and easily replaceable" and trains are "expensive"... they spent years treating drivers like crap, and now look at things...
they closed the sorting offices, had nothing to do with keeping it updated, the old buildings were too small for sorting machines and too close to the massive mount pleasant, they had to move the offices to deal with urban sprawl, and digging new tunnels to extend it would be far to costly and difficult, until recently the Government took all the profits from the company but didn't invest anything in its infrastructure, so its struggled on using outdated practices
@somedeveloperblokey
If you manage to send a parcel by email, then yes, it would blow my mind. But something tells me that this is not and will never be possible.
When VW got it into their head to build a "luxury car" (for context, the VW concern owns Audi and has ties to Porsche - two already established luxury car brands. VW is short for "people's car" in German and thus a VW luxury car is something of a self-contradiction), they furthermore got it into their head that their factory for this new car was supposed to be a "representative" downtown location instead of a more traditional suburban or rural factory. So they built one right in the center of Dresden on the edge of a giant park literally called "Großer Garten" ("Great Garden"). The city, however, not being total morons, demanded that VW reduce truck traffic through the inner city to a minimum and thus most parts were delivered by four specially built cargo trams from the train station to the plant via the Dresden tramway network.
Of course the "VW luxury car" idea was the inevitable flop and while they used the cargo trams again for the subsequent electric car production in the same factory, that too has since ceased...
@@heysemberthkingdom-brunel5041 Gläserne Manufaktur for the Phaeton?
Hope they keep on preserving the rest of the line. You never know what use it may be needed for in the future. Many are regretting now we closed down so many railways in the 1960's. I was in San Sebastian, northern Spain a couple of months ago and they have repurposed quite a long railway tunnel beneath a hill in the centre of the city to be a cycle path/footpath which is great for commuters because as well as being a shortcut, it also keeps you dry if it is raining!
I know there's an impressive rail-to-cycle tunnel in that corner of Spain in the hills that's over two miles long - Uitzi I believe.
Just wanted to tell you that I really enjoy your videos! I love Europe and want to visit so much, but I fear I would never be able to afford a trip there. You give me the experience of a private tour! Thank you so much 😊
I visited this a few years ago. A particular point that stuck in my mind is the portion of the museum which talks about disruptions to the mail and mentions the Dublin GPO being out of action in 1916 but completely fails to mention *why*. It's a really impressive piece of just quietly gliding over the unpleasant bits.
Also there's a pneumatic tube system that you can play with, leading to all kinds of entertaining stuff getting stuck halfway through.
I wouldn't be surprised if the entire concept of this video was just an excuse for Tim to play Postman Pat and Mr. Postman... 😈
I see absolutely nothing wrong with this. But 🤣
Went on this a couple of years ago, might be my favourite museum I've ever visited. I got to try on a hat!
These videos are like chamomile tea with a dash of hashish, if such a thing exists. They perk me up and make me relax expecting a better world in the morning.
The German postal service operated a similar railway in Munich. Connecting the local General Post office with the central Station.
is it open to the public nowadays like this one?
@@AnxiousMo-Fo I'm afraid, it's closed to the public.
Good to see you're pushing the envelope with your videos these days. It certainly gets my stamp of approval!
Was not expecting Postman Pat. But I should have. An iconic railway video needs an iconic musical accompaniment.
A friend of mine worked for the Royal Mail in the late 90s early 2000s and was bundled onto to one of these trains as an initiation 'ceremony' when he started.
they used to do that at our sorting office, the train ended up in Cardiff!
I used to love going to museums with my Dad. This was the last one we went to in 2019 before he passed away a year later. He was a fountain of knowledge, but particularly war history.
Truly excellent video! I’m always fascinated by these little-known places that remain hidden but unused under our feet. Your subtle music was fantastic, too!
Thanks for sharing! I always enjoy coming across your videos at random, especially on nights like tonight where I'm bored outta my mind and needed a good distraction.
Have to appreciate that the music is from Tim’s music channel, very epic!
I knew all about this railway but watched your video all the way through because I love your zany commentaries and observations. Thanks Tim for another very entertaining video.
Wow, there are so many little hidden gems in this world. Thank you for this AWESOME Video!
Went on this when it first opened, such a great little gem in London
Thanks for this video. I saw it when you first released it and made it my mission to see it when I went to London recently. It was a real highlight of my trip and my partner who is not usually into this stuff also enjoyed it
Awesome video, I was aware of this line from being a train geek !!! However I was not aware that it still operated as a museum and had rides for ppl who would like to partake in a small piece of history. Just added it to my bucket list :)
I've been meaning to visit Mail Rail since they opened, but I don't get to London often, and then covid hit, so it's going to be a while yet. Also, if you are interested in the history of the use of trains by the postal service, several heritage railways have preserved "Travelling Post Office" trains, which I've always found interesting (especially since they had actual letter boxes on the side). I seem to recall seeing one at Bridgnorth station a few years ago. Might be worth a nosy.
The mail train was used as a stand-in for a hyperloop system in Mike Myers' mini series The Pentaverate! It was so cool to recognize it!
I’m a yank in So Calif and have only been to London once for a few days. I am fascinated by videos such as this. Thank you 👍
Didn't know the northern line extension looks like this
Yeh, it's had an upgrade. 😀
The piano playing, magnificent as always!
idk know why but i frecking love this channel i have been watching you for a while now and all your content is about boring stuff but the way you present it makes it so enjoyable that its just lovely. thank you for the content
me and the boys jamming to the postman pat theme
I was on this railway in January 2018. I was in a hotel just up the road and visited the Mail Museum first and then traveled on the Post Office Railway or Rail Mail (under Mount Pleasant sorting centre) to begin a wonderful Winter Holiday. This brings back some memory of my travel on Mail Rail and I would like another visit. Wonderful Information. Keep Up the good work. 💌🚇😊
Outstanding as usual :) And the piano parts are getting better and better! Last but not least, very happy that you finally switched to OpenStreetMap ;)
I realize times have changed quite a bit in that the need to transport mail by rail is no longer viable. But as a Londoner, I have to wonder why this structure isn't incorporated for e-commerce in some way? Imagine how many delivery vans for Amazon or otherwise could be taken off London streets if things were taken underground into the centre of London
Because it costs more to do so than to have one diesel van drive around killing probably a few kids along the way and some migrant worker hauling all the cargo himself working 12 hours a day for 5 pence an hour.
For the non-UK watchers, the music which starts at 2:58 is the theme tune to an old children's TV show called "Postman Pat", and the music at 4:45 is a version of "Electricity" by UK band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark -- Tim's usual musical humour showing again!
I used to work at the Royal Mail and they have a platform and dedicated mail train for the Scottish Distribution Centre (in Wishaw) that I was often loading with the yorks heading to England and London specifically so they do still use private overground trains. I was mostly doing Amazon returns scanning until covid hit and the Glasgow sorting office punted a huge load of sorting our way for social distancing. Then I quit because of health reasons and not getting any shifts with their new system but it was pretty interesting to learn the inner workings of things while I was there.
Very interesting! My Dad worked at Mount Pleasant in the 50's/60's as well as EDO (Eastern District Office) at Whitechapel and often talked about the TPO (Travelling Post Office) as he called it. Your film brought back lovely memories. Must have a trip to London and have a ride!
Cant help but feel like, with the current push towards using mainline terminals for more parcels and last mile deliveries, mail rail may be required for use again in the future.....
The Postman Pat music was a nice touch ;)
We watched this last night. Wills is obsessed with the underground so this is now definitely on our to do list. Thanks for sharing. Great video. We like your sense of humour x
The Postman Pat background music deserves all the thumbs up, brought me right back to my childhood with that one
I have to say the person who picks your backing music is phenomenal... On par with homes under the hammer
Thanks for this! We went and had a lot of fun!
Here's some pop culture trivia: In 1981 the mail rail was used as 'Poste Vaticane' in the movie "Hudson Hawk" starring Bruce Willis.
Fantastic stuff, Tim. I went down there pre pandemic with the kids - it’s fascinating. I reckon with all the parcels these days, there’d be a use for it!
Did this the other week. Great experience.. Believe, covid permitting, they also offer an after hours tour walking the track.
Much like the Waterloo & City Line, this is one of those underground railways that I'm always fascinated by.
Tim, your videos make me so happy! Thank you.
My favorite laid-back influencer The Tim Traveler
a Tim Traveller and Geoff Marshall video on the same day, what a treat!
Great video Tim - I'm interested where you found the image you used for the sorting offices on the map at 6:07 - it looks identical to the delivery office I work in, at West Derby in Liverpool - so I was wondering if the offices were built to a pattern in the 50s or if this is just an image of my office that came up on creative commons or similar for "royal mail office"!
Quick Google and I've answered my own question - found the image on wikimedia and it is my office in Liverpool - very small world, I was driving one of the vans parked in that photo about 5 hours before you posted this video!
Haha yes - can confirm it is the West Derby one! I chose it because out of all the Royal Mail Delivery Offices on wikimedia, it was the one that looked most like a Royal Mail Delivery Office :D. Royal Mail sign on the wall, red vans parked outside, can't go wrong with that.
Loved the OMD's Electricity theme !! 4:58!
Ooh! Scooped Geoff! Nice one, Tim! Thanks for the interesting video!
Brilliant! Love this! Especially the nod to Postman Pat 🤣
I was there too on September 30th last year. Great experience! Greetings from Bonn, Germany!
Been meaning to ride this since it was first announced, but have yet to do so. Been fascinated by it since I read about it in a Ladybird book as a child in the 70s.
This was one of the most interesting videos of you, I’ve seen so far.
I rarely leave comments but I love all your content, Tim. Thankyou.
It's the little things that make me laugh, like car noises for horse and carts, and cow noises for cars. Well done sir.
The postman pat melody is bringing back so many memories.
On the must see bucket list. Meanwhile, still waiting for RUclips to notify me of this excellent video.
Oh boy, Postman Pat and OMD in a soundtrack for a single video. Absolutely love it, made my day.
It's great that they've opened this to the public now. I recall reading a few years ago on a forum about some cheeky scamps who sneaked in to explore the mail rail stations and tunnels when the public were very much NOT allowed to be in there. It may have been just after they mothballed it.
The new train looks like a Brio wooden set, love it!
I know you've used it before, but your piano rendition of OMD's Electricity to illustrate the unmanned trains being "controlled centrally by operators using a switchboard" fits in so nicely.
Fascinating--and another superb video. Thanks!
Visited here a couple of years ago. (Before pandemic!) great fun, really enjoyed it. (Almost as much as you obviously did!) well made video, and well narrated. 👍
This one is on my list! A bit of track I never thought I'd bash!
Holy shit I just saw this little train in EP2 of "The Pentaverate" and asked myself what that was. Mind is blown right now.👍
Same!!
I would really like this whole system to be refurbished and opened again. Seeing how cool it looked just on the one station, there could be hours long tours of the diffrent post offices with the mail train to connect each one. This kind of interactive museum is just brilliant!
I went on this 2 days ago, thanks to your video. I was the only person there, so they i had the whole train to myself!
Tim that piano rendition of a certain postman with his cat is incredible, could we have a full version of it? If so thanks. I always watch this video and have actually ridden on this line myself and think its really cool. I think they should extend it and use it as a proper railway where they could alight at other stations and take a look around because they've still got the old track and stations in place
Great video, as always. The Mail Rail goes onto my list of transport attractions to visit.
So technically you visited all the stations (that is open), the least used station and the most used station. So how long was the platform, was were a functioning help point, bike rack, and did the plastic bag in the bin, sway in the wind (draft)?
And how quaint was it?
Tim's been there now, even Tom Scott's been there. I think Geoff is slacking off on this railway
Geoff did it before it officially reopened for tourism..
Yes! You're back in Britain! That was so nice and I now I really want to travel in it! I'll check for letter reservations...
Ooohhh I waited for videos from London😍😍😍😍thank you!!
Great video Tim thanks for sharing I really think that trip would be both interesting and in a weird way quite fun. Am absolutely enjoying your work thanks again. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
love the postman pat cover
Wonderful, just wonderful.