Vintage railway film - Night Mail - 1936 

I joined Royal Mail in 1981 as an engineer working on the design and development of new mail sorting machines. I remember being shown this film quite early on in my career and I felt so proud that I had joined a public service with such a long history of being a part of the nation's structure. I can recite W.H. Auden's poem from memory ( OK, I'm a bit sad I admit 🙂 ). I took early retirement in 2004 and I can only look in horror at what is being revealed daily about the horizon fiasco and the miscarriages of justice that condemned so many honest hard-working people to prosecution, jail and ruin. I used to be proud of telling people that I worked for the Post Office / Royal Mail for 23 years. Although my department (Postal Engineering R & D ) had nothing whatsoever to do with horizon, I still feel ashamed of the depths that a once, much-loved & respected organisation can descend to.

This country used to be such a powerhouse.

Genuinely one of the best railway related films ever made, complete with W. H. Auden's mesmerizing poem at the end.

1:46 Mail trains were passed from one signalbox to the next with the same bell code as the Royal Train, 4-4-4

That's in the distant past when the PO actually operated with ethics

These old documentaries are brilliant. a lesson in history. thanks for sharing. Tony.

Brilliant. Utterly brilliant. The Internet of the 1930's

Wonder how many of these chaps survived the war.

as a young student i worked in the PO sorting office ar Christmas...still recall the atmosphere..wooden floors..the lovely aroma of mailbags..

I’ve got this recorded on the sky box and I put it on practically every week it’s brilliant to put on when I can’t sleep the sound of the train rattling over the tracks and then listening to Auden reciting his poem, mmm my eyes are getting heavy I better sit up or I’ll be snoozing 💤

Same old manager or inspector just watching, talking and drinking tea. Nothing has changed there

Marvellous!

Wonderful! And that poem by the poet lauréate…

Nice upload, with a bit of rapping at the end, Cool.

The track works gang all smoking and swigging beer 😂😂😂

Britain just before the great decline..

It always seems as if it’s the LMS producing these films. I don’t think I’ve seen the GW, Southern or LNER do them - didn’t they have film/publicity units?

Pip Pip Cheerio Bob’s your uncle

Great footage, strange editing.

Romanticising back breaking long hours work, especially on steam engines. Now rail transit is better, they take it off the railways onto the roads!🥴