Going Postal: The Story of London's Mail Rail



I’ve heard of first class travel, but this is ridiculous!

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46 thoughts on “Going Postal: The Story of London's Mail Rail”

  1. Excellent as always and full of history about London. I love these Jago videos about trains, in the same way that I love John Rogers 'Walks Through London' and I feel they really complement each other. Thanks Jago.

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  2. The current/voltage misstep that has sparked ample moans is in my mind instantly negated by your use of power cut (4:30).All of a sudden the broadcast media has decided to adopt outage in yet another case of lingo mangle for no apparent or good reason. Ohm y goodness, we'll be driving on the right soon.

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  3. I like that the Postal Museum has one year tickets. High enough in price to fleece the tourists 😂, but hopefully good value for “locals” who can get in a number of visits… Perhaps, more a concept for art galleries, and other places with changing exhibits 🤔

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  4. Will you do a special on Heston services on M4 ,this was the aerodrome that Neville Chamberlain displayed his piece of white paper ,with peace in our time, so much of the ww2 history is connected to Britains railways ,

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  5. Jago! Was wondering if this would be covered. On a visit to London a few years ago I checked this out. Elbowed some cute kids outta the way to get to front of the train hahaha (kidding! sorta…). It’s a fantastic thing the museum has done there and the train is amazing – the exhibits are good too. Highly recommend seeing it!

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  6. If mail rail was built to the sise of the tube, yes it might be back, but you are not getting a tv or a bike onboard so online shopping is not the great reviver. Also the equipment is for mail and light packages so nope.

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  7. Still just the mile or so out and back loop route I assume? (I think it was less than a mile, maybe a kilometer?) I sincerely wish they will one day open up the entire route to Paddington to tourists. It was fun, but a tad disappointing in how short it was.

    (I still have not uploaded to footage I took in 2019 when I visited, lol)

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  8. Another YT video went into details of a American version of this saying in the days you would visit a store and have them deliver your purchase to your home and the streets would be crammed with trucks trying to sort it out, basements of stores were linked to this system and it moved the packages underground reducing traffic caused by delivery vehicles.. was it Chicago maybe NYC?

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  9. 5:15 there was once an incident where a car fell off the track so they didn't know that part of the track was occupied so they sent another and it crashed into the other car and fell off and it happened one more time until the workers thought why aren't any trains coming and walked down the tracks to find 3 smashed up trains

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  10. The power units of one of the two trains that went to Launceston have been used to build the power bogie for a diesel-electric railcar. The second train still exists and can be seen in the museum.

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  11. I was pleased to see a VR postbox at the end there. Within a mile of where I'm sitting as I type this, there is both a EVIIR and EVIIIIR postbox still in service.

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  12. Obviously a large dense city like London really ought to have a network of mail/parcel railways underground.
    When the mail trains stopped and it was moved to lorries on the motorways, what if at least one of these new terminals had been connected to Mail Rail? And an eastern extension out to Canary Wharf? Thoughtful expansions with long term potential.

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  13. Absolutely fascinating, all sorts of things here that I didn't know about the erstwhile Post Office Railway, including the sheer intensity of the operation. Good that it's been mothballed in case it's needed again, though it sounds as if mail transport patterns have altered substantially. Interesting that Paddington and Liv St were on the line but KX, St P, Euston and the Southern termini weren't.

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  14. Nice to see the VR (Victoria Regina) Post Box at the end of your interesting video. Won't be long before a few 'C III R' King Charles ones appear, no doubt! The Republic of Ireland, kept their Royal Mail boxes when separating from Britain in 1922 and quite a few VR, 'E VII R' and 'G V R' ones have survived, painted green, especially in Dublin.

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  15. I agree I think if it had stuck around I think it probably would be back in service now with increased traffic, I did think that at the time but, that's us mere mortals don't get to make big decisions like that

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