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00:03Hi I'm Aisha one of the male rail drivers and your guide today. We ask all passengers to
00:10remain seated for the duration of the ride and not to lean on the sides of the train.
00:14This may cause it to stop suddenly. Thank you. Welcome to Marrow. We're just leaving the depot
00:23where the trains were maintained. We're in a small train entering a narrow tunnel beneath
00:28the busy streets of London on a mini railway that once carried Britain's mail for sorting,
00:34distribution and delivery. If this were a working mail rail train we wouldn't be going slowly.
00:40We'd be rattling along at 30 miles an hour and I wouldn't be here either because the
00:45trains had no drivers. They were controlled by an electrical switching system. This was
00:50the world's first driverless electric railway and the only one dedicated to carrying a post.
00:58On this journey you'll hear from people who remember me. Here's Ben Leeter.
01:05My grandfather called Hayes Lee, an inspector on the mail rail. I have a story about when I was seven
01:12who was allowed to go on the mail rail against all the rules. I must have said to him I
01:17wanted to go but
01:18when the doors opened there was this little tiny train or a track so small and I was going for
01:24a ride on it which was so exciting.
01:27Until I sat me on it I realised I had to go on that route. I had to go into
01:31this really dark tunnel and off we went into the darkness.
01:35My granddad didn't come. He wasn't able to go which probably added to my small anxieties about being on it
01:41should you say.
01:52Merrell could be dangerous. Can you see the pile of sandbugs that we're passing?
01:57That used to be a sand pit designed to catch and safely stop trains that were running the wrong way.
02:07We're arriving at platform one on the right of the train.
02:12These platforms were scenes of frantic activity in the days when the railway was doing its
02:16job.
02:17And on the platform you may notice a dartboard.
02:21Steve Holloway, platform worker, explained.
02:41It sounds like a lot of fun and games, but there was a serious need for Maro when it was
02:46constructed.
02:47In those days it was called the Post Office Railway.
03:02Post Office Railway was designed to solve an old problem.
03:05As early as the mid-1800s, people realised that mail moving through the streets of London
03:10could easily get trapped in traffic.
03:14In 1911, it was decided to build an underground railway, running six and a half miles through
03:20new tunnels, 70 feet below the streets.
03:23Eight stops were linked to sorting offices and railway stations, from which mail crossed
03:28the country on regular trains.
03:31Digging of the tunnels began in 1913.
03:35It was done almost entirely by hand.
03:39During the First World War, the unfinished tunnels were used to safely store treasures from London's
03:43galleries and museums, including the world famous Rosetta Stone.
03:48The railway wasn't ready for use until 1927.
03:51But once it was in service, the Post Office Railway became something very special indeed.
03:58Some of the guys would have a sleep down there.
04:00I don't know how.
04:01It was very, very noisy.
04:03Ray Middlesworth, engineer.
04:04We had the trains coming in.
04:06As you're in the tunnel, the sound echoes round and you get screeching of the wheels.
04:11Hungry administrator.
04:13Not many people knew that Royal Mail had an underground railway.
04:18It is just fascinating that it ran for so many years and nobody knew of its existence.
04:23Lovely little gem of hidden London.
04:26A lot of things stayed pretty much the same over the lifetime of the railway.
04:31And one of them was what happened every time a train arrived at one of the stations,
04:34carrying containers of mail.
04:36Some needed to take enough to go to a sorting office and others needed to be loaded on.
04:41They'd come in and it just went mad.
04:44Everyone would be pulling off and then tip that, tip that, get some, put something on.
04:48All the mail bags would be emptied onto this bucket by a conveyor belt.
04:52This thing would rise to the surface and empty them all out onto the platform.
05:00From 1927 to 2003, the railway ran 22 hours out of 24, six days a week, 51 weeks a year.
05:10Teams of workers, three shifts every day.
05:13Most of the people I knew, they said the mail rail was the best job I ever had.
05:16It was very family orientated.
05:19Everyone seemed to get along.
05:21Amanda Stocks, inspector.
05:23The railway was just special.
05:25There were so many people that I just bonded with.
05:28Doing something really unique, but also doing it in great company.
05:33What more do you want?
05:34I'm still friends with people I've worked with on the railway
05:37because they didn't become just work colleagues after several decades.
05:41They're your best friends.
05:49Oh, it looks like I've got a letter to deliver.
05:54And now, we'll head back into the tunnels.
06:01For staff in the 70s and 80s, life on the railway was like travelling back in time.
06:06I joined in January 1979.
06:10When I first went down here, I was amazed.
06:12The lighting was really dim and it was very old.
06:15Everything was old.
06:16The furniture was old.
06:17The dust was everywhere.
06:19The conveyor belts were all needed a cover pane.
06:22It was probably as it was in the 30s, 40s.
06:26It hadn't changed since then.
06:28The year I joined, in 1987 onto the railway,
06:33it was the 60th anniversary and many generations had been through it.
06:38There were people there who were trained by people,
06:42who were trained by people who were there at the very beginning.
06:47A lot of railway stuff had to be fixed in-house or made in-house.
06:52And you were seeing things that come from the early 30s still there and operational.
07:03Let's pause here for a moment where the tracks head off in different directions.
07:08The tunnel to the left leads to Liverpool Street Station,
07:11where mail was transferred to the main railway network.
07:15And further down that tunnel, there's a pair of heavy steel doors.
07:19They are flood barriers.
07:22During the railway's construction,
07:24ten men had to scramble to safety when water flooded into where they were working.
07:29The barriers were put in during the wall, but luckily haven't been needed since.
07:35When we move off into the loop tunnel, keep a lookout on either side of the train,
07:40and you'll get a glimpse of what we call the train graveyard.
07:44Over to our engineer, Ray Middlesworth.
07:46When trains did have a collision, sometimes the damage was quite severe,
07:51so they'd be stored there on a temporary basis.
07:55But temporary, it became very long-term, it became permanent,
07:58so it did eventually become a graveyard for these trains.
08:01I believe the old hoover is down there.
08:05It's important to keep the track clean,
08:07and they thought, well, why not build a hoover,
08:10stick it on a set of wheels, and we'll take it down there.
08:12But one of the problems is in the tunnel, that side,
08:15is that once you start the air moving, it keeps moving.
08:18So all that happens, you disappear in a cloud of dust.
08:41Don't worry, it's gone dark because we've lost power to the lights,
08:45but they'll be back on any moment now.
08:47During a power cut, engineers could reroute the supply from other stations
08:51to get the trains moving without delay.
09:12Now that the lights are back on, take a look at the tunnel walls.
09:15You can see the great iron rings that were bolted together,
09:18one by one, to protect the workers as they dug out the clay.
09:22You might also notice things that look like icicles hanging from the ceilings.
09:27These are made of a mineral called calcite.
09:34People trust in the post office to deliver almost anything,
09:37which meant the railway carried some surprising parcels.
09:41I used to like bees, they used to post bees.
09:44I think they were in tubes that were broken up into little cells.
09:48You pick a bag up, and they go, psst,
09:52and you've got ice bees, they've got bees in there.
09:54Put them very gently into the container.
09:57I used to like that.
10:05We've now looped around to platform two,
10:08where trains would head off towards Paddington station.
10:11We want to give you an idea of what the railway was like when it was new, in the 1930s.
10:17It was a world without emails and texts.
10:20Even telephones weren't that common.
10:22So you wrote and posted letters.
10:33Train loads of mail arrived at every station every few minutes,
10:36with about a minute to unload and reload.
10:40Let's follow a few of those letters.
10:46This is the Colonel.
10:53This is Kathleen.
10:55She's keeping in touch with her sweetheart in the Navy.
11:01And this is Mary.
11:03Her letter is very special because it's going to
11:06Ho Ho Ho!
11:07Father Christmas!
11:10It's Mary.
11:11I love you.
11:12It's Mary.
11:12I love you.
11:13It's Mary.
11:15It's Mary.
11:15Yeah, it's Mary.
11:15It's Mary.
11:16It's Mary.
11:16Thank you, my.
11:17I'm so glad to be here.
11:19I'm so glad I was really good at this.
11:21I'm so glad I was going to hear.
11:21You're so glad I was going to hear.
11:31the king's speech on Christmas Day.
11:35Dear Father Christmas, it's me again. Merry Christmas.
11:39I wrote to you watch Jake, if you remember. I asked for a copy
11:43but you want me to go to his house instead. But I do still
11:46really want to copy.
11:58Mother Christmas Day.
11:59Mother Christmas Day.
12:00Friend...
12:01Mother Christmas Day.
12:04.
12:11Father Christmas Day.
12:13.
12:14I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
12:50You must go now, or I shall be making work.
12:54Take care of yourself, my love.
12:57And every Christmas, my darling, don't be.
13:03I will forward your response with key anticipation.
13:07The most in sitting, can a bath in the garage.
13:11The time.
13:16I have to see if we are going to leave the puppies, I have to say if there are any
13:21spare ones,
13:22I will be very grateful for you, wishing you a very happy Christmas.
13:27Merry Christmas.
13:30So those three letters all got delivered quickly and safely.
13:34And so did the other four million which travelled along the railway every day.
13:39We're now leaving platform two and heading back up to the depot.
13:44One of the most surprising things about the railway is how bonded the workforce were.
13:49I would say a good third of the people down on the railway had connections with other guys.
13:56Lots of fathers and sons and brothers and uncles and all that kind of stuff.
14:03And that made the bond between the guys a lot stronger.
14:07I suppose it made the culture of the railway that much stronger.
14:13Not all of the railway workers were men.
14:15There was one woman.
14:18Traffic inspector Amanda Stokes.
14:21I was the only woman who was in a leadership position.
14:25I don't ever remember feeling uncomfortable or challenged because I was a woman.
14:32So I could have faced a lot of pushback, but I didn't.
14:36We made so many friends there.
14:38Even since coming to Australia, still being in touch with so many of them.
14:42So yeah, it was just really special.
15:03For most of its life, the network was officially known as the Post Office Railway.
15:07In 1987, it was rebranded to Mail Rail, and for a few years, it was busier than ever.
15:14But in the 90s, email and phones began to eat into the railway's core business.
15:21I remember us all getting called to a meeting where they talked about mothballing the railway,
15:27as if it was going to be a temporary thing.
15:29But I think we all knew that it wasn't going to be temporary.
15:34Mail Rail closed on May 31st, 2003.
15:38It had been in service continuously for almost 76 years.
15:44Someone had the foresight to commission this unique method of transporting mail about,
15:51and you've got to applaud that.
15:55You'd never forget working on mail rail, you'd never forget it.
15:59My ghost will walk the...
16:00You'd never forget it.
16:02My ghost will walk the platforms at Mount Pleasant.
16:07I always thought, especially when we were just about to shut down,
16:11that that was it, and it would pass into history,
16:13and no one will ever know it was here, and all the things that happened.
16:17I thought they were just disappearing to the past,
16:20but I'm so pleased that it's been preserved, and it looks the same to me.
16:24And that's why Mail Rail matters.
16:26What once worked quietly, out of sight, is now open to everyone.
16:30Our visitors have a chance to see the tunnels, hear the stories, and discover the people who kept London's mail
16:36moving.
16:37Thanks to those who built it, ran it, and saved it, this hidden railway isn't forgotten after all.
16:47Here we are arriving back at the temple.
16:49We hope you've enjoyed your tour around the little world of mail rail.
16:53Don't forget to explore the exhibition as well.
16:55There's lots more to see.
16:57Goodbye, and Merry Christmas.
17:10Goodbye, and Merry Christmas.
17:30Goodbye, and Merry Christmas.