In 1987 I was the PM for a company called Hop Studios who designed and managed the installation of the new streamline bodies for the Greenbat train motor units for the Mail Rail launch. We spent over a month in the maintenance workshop under the Mount Pleasant sorting office fixing the new external shells to the original running chassis. We also had to hitch a passenger car and the new train body mock-up to a battery car to through every tunnel in the system to make sure it didn't hit anything. I spent a weekend in the tunnels sitting in front of the mock-up when the system was shut down. It was like having my own giant train set to play with! Given the new restrictions coming in that are limiting movement with petrol vehicles in London - it seems the track and tunnels could be re-purposed to provide clean/green goods transport!
@@Cameron-ls3qt You can say the same about newsreaders and actors. They "just" read scripts. Does that make them any less intelligent or ignorant of what they talk about? At the start, it says that Katie is both a tour guide and an author, so I daresay she has a genuine interest and knowledge about various historical topics.
I’m subscribed to Katie’s channel!! She’s such a knowledgeable guide and professional, as well; certified and verified as she is! Proud to see her here at history hit.
I remember going as a teenager to see it in the early 70s (I would guess). Our Scout Leader organised a trip for us all. It was fascinating at the time to watch the bags come down the helical slides, be loaded into the tubs and onto the trains. Now we plan to go to the museum tomorrow - can't wait!
Used to scare me when working in the Underground at night. The power is off you're walking down the tunnel and hear a train running, thankfully a postie train 😮
Would be super cool if they made this into a landmark and you could take a ride on a converted mail train and go thru all the stops while learning about the history. Would also help to keep the areas maintained and available to the public because it really is something that is incredible cool
You can….you can visit the Postal Museum and travel on a little mail train through the tunnel loop that was used to turn the trains round. Definitely worth a visit and the stamp/postal exhibition is really interesting too.
I had the 'luxury' of visiting when the railway was still in operation; they used to allow work visits for interested groups and I joined one such group. Well done Katie, as always, for an informative well presented video.
Greetings from France! Back in the late 1980s, I happened to pass by Mount Pleasant sorting office and there was some kind of "open doors day" there, with a visit of the premises including the underground mail rail station which at the time was fully operational and I just loved it. Too bad it has been abandoned as nowadays the mail is transported by trucks and it certainly adds to the congestion! Very interesting and surprising video indeed.
I have seen vids on this rail before, but this video filled in gaps that were missed in other vids. Thanks to Katie and her team for there time and hard work.....
A really well produced and informative video Katie. All these things going on under our feet decades ago that many didn't know existed. I think it's good that the railway still exists and that there are chances for people to experience how things were over the years gone by. Too much heritage has gone and only if we're lucky some photographs exist. Many thanks for sharing.
Fascinating, and good to see more than on the public Mail Rail walk. Also, a clear and logical reason for the demise of the functioning railway - I always wondered why it closed when the roads of London are so busy !
What a shame. We live in an age where more small packets and mail is sent than ever, thanks to online ordering, but ever since the 90's Royal Mail has been in continuous decline due to bad management. The service is so abysmal these days most people simply don't want to use it at all, even just going to the Post Office is a nightmare experience - that is if you can even find one locally.
Sterling presentation by Katie! I clicked on this video out of idle curiosity but found myself watching the whole video. It's informative and well put together. Nice work. Thanks for posting.
In a previous life, as a Corporate Relations/Public Affairs Manager for The Post Office Corporation, as it was then, I used to take opinion formers on special trains through the tunnels. We’d also show them our operation at “The Mount”. There was some talk about opening up the service to the bigger retailers on Oxford Street, thus taking lorries off the already crowded streets. Obviously, it never happened! Fun video. Top notch!
As a Chicago resident, this film immediately connected me with the underground service tunnel flood of 1992. As a rail fan, I love the story. This piece convinced me to subscribe to History Hit. Thanks.
I really enjoyed seeing a whole side of London and the way mail went on its way across the city. Thank you for a very interesting and informative video.
Was so good to see as I had been there in December 2022 and got to ride in front of the train- so interesting to see and also the Postal museum is across the street. Surprised you did not touch upon how people can go and ride the tunnels and the museum. Katie you did a fantastic job and loved how you were able to walk the tunnels !
My Dad was a senior engineer for the Post Office in the 1960's. He took me to see this in action. He also took me to the Post Office (now BT) Tower when it was being built; we went up in a hoist. There was to be a revolving restaurant on top, this bit was still to be dropped in. He also took me to the Houses of Parliament chamber and up Big Ben. Also he took me to the "Hot Line" emergency Soviet Union / London ,/ Washington telephone to prevent mistaken use of nuclear weapons. I also was taken to a disaster info line after the sinking of a liner with the loss of hundreds of lives. Volunteer operators were fielding the calls. This would not be possible now, I was privileged really. Thanks Dad!
I was taken by my Dad to an open-day of the line sometime in the 80's. This included a journey along the line and back, although I remember the tunnels being much smaller.
I always been a sad person when it comes to abandoned things especially house stores and especially churches it's has always made me sad, especially when I learned about the abandoned tunnels two years ago, so much could be revamped and put to good use.
This railway was originally built to overcome congestion on the streets of London. Surely, now that the streets are even MORE congested, and despite the fact that the route does not connect with ALL the places it originally once did, SOMETHING could be transported quickly and greenly through the tunnels.
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Thank you so much for this fascinating presentation dear Katie,hidden underground tunnels of london that is perfectly in accordance with the British underground Rock 'N' roll genre music, much love, with my best (St. Alien).
Thanks Alan, I'm still working as a full time London guide and haven't been able to regularly put out my own RU-vid videos in the past year so this was a great opportunity to work with the fab team at History Hit :)
the one thing I still wonder about the mail rail is that with the incredible amount of parcels that are shipped nowadays, it should be worthwhile to build new lines to allow these trains to go where they need to go, and then rent capacity out to all the private operators Royal Mail fail to compete with to help pay for it. It'd save a huge amount of emissions and clear up a bit of the traffic in London's streets. Sure it won't be cheap to dig new tunnels, lay more track, and update the system, but since it won't be carrying passengers there's a long list of things you don't need to worry about to the same degree as the tunnels for the passenger trains, so it's much cheaper to extend the mail rail than doing anything on the underground.
When I was with The Post Office Corporation we explored opening up the service to retailers on Oxford Street and extending Mail Rail further west with new stations. For many reasons, it never got further than just talking about it!
Crazy that such a large structure in a high density space like London hasn’t been repurposed. Personally I think it would be a great cycle tunnel, but no doubt there are issues with height & width of the tunnels that prevent that. At least it’s getting visited by people as a museum & hasn’t been forgotten completely.
We need to be moving more goods by rail. Do you have any idea how many ebay and Amazon packages we could be moving if this system was restored and even expanded?
Exactly what I was thinking, it baffles me that there’s a war on motorists going on while infrastructure, useful infrastructure like this is left unused. There’s so much potential here if one would expand the network to critical logistic points like Heathrow airport. Sad times we live in, one day we will wake up with trucks and vans blocking our cities streets. But at least private traffic was outlawed. A shame
I've been on the tour but it would be great if it could extend to Paddington and Whitechapel. Surely there's more that could be done generally with this network especially as it runs so close to major shopping centres and main line stations.
Everyone should take one of Katie's tours - all it will cost you is the airfare to London plus £10 or so ;) She does have a lot of content available on the web, though.
We do have guides like this! I've Ben on historical tours in Boston, Wilmington NC, Philadelphia, etc, there are plenty of places with knowledgeable, enthusiastic historical guides just as wonderful as Katie and Alice, who are admittedly delightful. Check out The History Underground, the presenter JD is a history teacher and travels around the world teaching about historical sites mostly related to US history, really fantastic stuff.
@@FrankFurther Oh but they do have a lot of history spanning back many tens of years, they just don't like to talk about or acknowledge most it is all.
Chicago had a separate cargo underground cargo system that went to many of the major buildings basements. After it was abandoned a piledriver working in the river pierced into the tunnel and Flooded the entire system And the basements of the buildings!
11:30 I'm not being mean or anything like that, but: This shot made me chuckle as I looked at the height differences between the two people on camera, and remembered the seemingly concerned tone of voice used while you were donning your helmet earlier... 🤔...👍...🤣
If you ever come to the state go to Chicago and check out the underground tunnels. I've heard stories about them but, I don't know what's going on with them now
Cool video, didn't know about this the least before watching! :D - But as said in the video, why not use the railway for other things now? The mushroom farm sounds like an interesting idea. And you could even keep the museum. But typical, no decision is made and it all rots away, meh.
