Paddington Mail Rail

[Nacht-Zug-Fahr]

Good Evening !
I’m curious as to where the mail from the GWR trains at Paddington was dispatched to the old Post Office Railway ( Mail Rail ) . I’ve read there was a conveyor belt connection between the mainline platforms and mail rail , as well as a goods lift ..
I wonder where they were located ?

 

[TheTallOne]

Good Evening !
I’m curious as to where the mail from the GWR trains at Paddington was dispatched to the old Post Office Railway ( Mail Rail ) . I’ve read there was a conveyor belt connection between the mainline platforms and mail rail , as well as a goods lift ..
I wonder where they were located ?

Did you watch Secrets of the London Underground tonight?

If not, good timing... It was/is covered in episode 2 this evening.

It's on TV channel Yesterday and available on uktv play.

 

[Nacht-Zug-Fahr]

Did you watch Secrets of the London Underground tonight?

If not, good timing... It was/is covered in episode 2 this evening.

It's on TV channel Yesterday and available on uktv play.

No but I will watch !

 

[Mr. SW]

I remember the chutes being used, many, many years ago. By chance I was at Padd very late at night and porters just threw the mail bags into them. I saw the Episode on Yesterday,

I didn't know there was a luggage conveyor for Heathrow Express. It never crossed my mind that there would be one.

 

[John Webb]

Tonight's "Secrets of the London Underground" episode is repeated on the Yesterday Channel at 9pm on Friday 12th July.

 

[swt_passenger]

I remember the chutes being used, many, many years ago. By chance I was at Padd very late at night and porters just threw the mail bags into them. I saw the Episode on Yesterday,

I didn't know there was a luggage conveyor for Heathrow Express. It never crossed my mind that there would be one.

Geoff Marshall also had a bit about these subjects in one of his “Londonist“ station videos, he points out one of the shuttered mail rail entrances, and shows the abandoned HEX conveyor, when it was built it involved closure of a passenger subway between the platforms:

 

[Energy]

Did you watch Secrets of the London Underground tonight?

If not, good timing... It was/is covered in episode 2 this evening.

It's on TV channel Yesterday and available on uktv play.

You can watch online here [Secrets of the London Underground S4 E2]

 

[Belperpete]

I was fortunate to visit it when it was still operating. There were chutes to get the bags down. To get the bags up to the trains, I recall a kind of vertical continuous belt with large pouches on it, that the bags would be put into, to carry the bags up to platform level.

The trains were driven automatically, by the signalling system controlling the voltage supply to the live rails. When the posties had finished loading or unloading a train, they would press a plunger on the wall, voltage would be applied to the live rails and off the train would go. It was apparently all designed and built in-house by the GPO. The relays in the relay room made fearsome banging noises as they switched the traction voltage.

There was a passenger car, but unfortunately we didn't get a ride in it as special instructions applied and it couldn't be used together with normal traffic.

The TV programme didn't seem to visit the railway itself, just the shutes and conveyor belts to it. Presumably they weren't allowed access? I was also very surprised that no mention was made of the preserved section of mail rail now operating as a tourist attraction.

 

[notverydeep]

Not Paddington, but the Mail Rail part of the Postal Museum near Farringdon is worth a visit and has a display of the rolling stock and a ride (ironically now manually operated from the train), which does go down and through (what I presume was) the Mount Pleasant 'station'...

Some details at: https://www.postalmuseum.org/visit-...GP76IVhVhi8ax3wjmb1-VEEatXsYBlDhoCX40QAvD_BwE

 

[Belperpete]

While I would thoroughly recommend it, I do think they took the wrong approach. It would have been far better to have preserved it as it was, with the automatic trains and demonstrations of the mail handling, rather than turning it into a kind of underground fairground ride.

 

[Western 52]

I visited the system at Mount Pleasant in the early 1980s and was amazed at how quickly they dealt with each train. I also remember the banging of the relays, and we actually visited the room where they were located. We didn't get a ride though!

 

[ian1944]

For electro-mechanical aural overload you couldn't beat a 10000-line telephone exchange, with PO relays, uniselectors and Strowger switches going full belt. I spent some time in one of the central Manchester ones in the 60s, with a lot of commercial subscribers who were all calling at about 0900, and the noise was tremendous - I'd say more than a weaving shed going flat out.

 

[Belperpete]

For electro-mechanical aural overload you couldn't beat a 10000-line telephone exchange, with PO relays, uniselectors and Strowger switches going full belt. I spent some time in one of the central Manchester ones in the 60s, with a lot of commercial subscribers who were all calling at about 0900, and the noise was tremendous - I'd say more than a weaving shed going flat out.

Waterloo BR telephone exchange was a bit like that. As well as the Strowger telephone exchange, it contained the uniselectors for handling all the calls to the Southern Region telephone inquiry bureau. As I recall, the Strowger switches were relatively quiet, compared to the uniselectors, which seemed to go off like a machine gun.

 

[Ken H]

Waterloo BR telephone exchange was a bit like that. As well as the Strowger telephone exchange, it contained the uniselectors for handling all the calls to the Southern Region telephone inquiry bureau. As I recall, the Strowger switches were relatively quiet, compared to the uniselectors, which seemed to go off like a machine gun.

Avoncroft Building Museum in Bromsgrove has the national telephone kiosk collection. They work through an exchange which has working Strowger kit. Think they have a minature railway too.

 

[ijmad]

I remember the chutes being used, many, many years ago. By chance I was at Padd very late at night and porters just threw the mail bags into them. I saw the Episode on Yesterday,

I didn't know there was a luggage conveyor for Heathrow Express. It never crossed my mind that there would be one.

Yeah, up until about 2003, you could check in your bags at Paddington and not see them again until you landed at the other end of your flight - quite convenient really. They used to go down to Heathrow in bulk in the luggage space in the class 322 HeX trains and be loaded straight into the Heathrow baggage system.

I believe a similar service was offered at Victoria for travellers heading to Gatwick Airport.

 

[Gerald Fiennes]

'Mail Rail' was of course really known as the 'Post Office Railway' (the clue is in the name..) The 'rebranding' only happened in the 80s, ie. what turned out to be its last few years of operation.

For nostalgia buffs, its worth recalling that the postal system was in effect the internet of its day, so one could write a letter, get a reply, send a follow-up back and then get a further reply all within the same day in many cities... Speed was everything back then: the Post Office Railway connected a number of the large sorting offices in London to each other, avoding traffic congestion, so was not just for delivering the mail to Paddington. Telegrams and, later, the telex system (a sort of early internet...) were also options for commercial purposes, but were a premium product.

Btw, I thought the access was at the far end of Platform 8, near to the where the taxi ramp was.

 

[Towers]

While I would thoroughly recommend it, I do think they took the wrong approach. It would have been far better to have preserved it as it was, with the automatic trains and demonstrations of the mail handling, rather than turning it into a kind of underground fairground ride.

I have to say I disagree; having ridden it several times the tour is very informative and, as is essential for the continuing success of these sorts of attractions, ensures that it has as broad an appeal as possible by touching on the wider societal history of the postal system as well as just the rail system itself. I’m fairly sure that many/most visitors would prefer a ride down the tunnel than merely observing the trains disappearing into it, given the choice!

 

[davews]

I agree. Having ridden it I found it a fascinating tour. When I visited I got the one year return ticket but then covid got in the way so I didn't manage to do it again but may do soon.