M@Mail Rail: Inside London's Post Office Tube LineOn the tracks at Mount Pleasant station.Remnants of the working station lie all around. Here, a decaying box of soap, each carrying the EIIR symbol, sits where it was left a decade ago. Tracks lead down from the maintenance depot into the running track.Inside the maintenance area for Mail Rail. The depot sits in picturesque dilapidation, with crumbling paint and rusty fittings. Tools and equipment are everywhere.The driver must sit backwards to the journey direction.The passenger carriage carries the monograms of several monarchs. It can seat 18 passengers.One tunnel carries mosaics depicting the 12 Days of Christmas, painted for a festive party that took place in the tunnels a few years ago. (Apologies for the poor shot...there was little scope for photography on the moving train.)A steel flood barrier protects the tunnels from inundation.The tunnel roof sports many concrete stalactites. These were by no means the longest.A westbound tunnel.Diagram showing the track layouts of Mail Rail and its stations.
Did you know that there's a tube station in north Clerkenwell? Well, sort of. Mount Pleasant is one of eight stations on the former London Post Office Railway, often called Mail Rail.
Mail Rail trains carried parcels between Paddington and Whitechapel from 1927 to 2003, when the line was mothballed to save money. Now, plans are afoot to reopen the Mount Pleasant station as an attraction. Visitors will not only get to walk around this fascinating piece of industrial heritage, they will also be able to take a ride through the tunnels that loop around Mount Pleasant.
The station is unlikely to open for a few years, but the first phase will see a new postal museum open in 2016 on the Mount Pleasant site.
We were granted access recently, to get an early preview of what to expect. We're working on a video of the trip but, for now, here are a few snaps of the tunnels, platforms and maintenance area.
