Post Office Railway a film by Fred Ivey

[ArmitageShanked]

Some nutters got down there the other week, search hard enough and you will find the pictures :-)

[mogramjo]

Fascinating!!!

[Jefftrigwell2]

Very nice movie. Thanks

[mrmattandmrchay]

Facinating and thanks for uploading this rare footage!

[JennyTallia]

@Reddog785

Yes, if you look on one of the carriages, it has E.R stamped on it, The queens initials. A sole carriage for the queen to use in the event of emergency.

[briddocheez]

@JennyTallia

Errrr... no LOL. The E.R stands for "Elizabeth Reigns" and is the Royal stamp which gives the Royal Mail its name "Royal Mail". You really think the Queen would use this as transport?! I THINK NOT!

[JennyTallia]

@briddocheez

E.R stands for "Elizabeth Regina", Regina is *LATIN*, for QUEEN. Come back when you have done a bit of study of Latin use in history. And it was not used as a conventional transport.., trust me, if it was the ONLY way and your life depended on it, you would do *ANYTHING*. That was what the royal carriage was for, evacuation purposes in event of EMERGENCY.

[alloria]

What a fantastic system! Thanks for showing us it.

[MrCanvey1]

just to clear up a few things. the po railway was closed due to willesden princess royal terminal being opened. there was thoughts of extending it out to willesden,but the cost was thought to be to prohibitive. yes,rail did stop being used out of willesden for a year or so,but rail is again used for long haul services.

the other reason the tube was stopped was that r.mail shut a lotof the mail hubs in central ndon,only paddington(to close soon) and mount pleasent,so it did nt connect nothing.

[fireeater999cmcc]

This is amazing and a shame to see left dormant now...

[GWR4079]

amazing love it

[ads4050]

How do you mean mothballed?



[Amtrak1194]

amazing this system survived for so long...

we had the same in Chicago but it went under in 1959

[integer22]

this system was apparently 5 times more expensive than transporting the same piece of cargo by road, hence the closure. still, its pretty fascinating and a great idea

[mightybaboonking]

@integer22

The decision is a good example of the way in which the 'price' of something doesn't describe its value to society. The costs to other road user of not having additional mail vans causing congestion and pollution are not taken into consideration.

[TrainzContentHelp]

i never knew that this system existed. i thinks it really brilliant how could they close this down? if they do i think that they should open it to the public and give people rides. are the trains operated automatically or manually?

[86223Hector]

Fantastic, well filmed Fred, and an absolutely fascinating insight in to the line.

[sinisterish]

It is bloody stupid to not use this and add to the congestion topside.

[chunkylimey]

Ben Goldacre just linked to this and I have to admit I'm still wondering why it's not in use. Surely this would be a perfect way to reduce the freight and congestion on London roads? Maybe Royal Mail could offer the service as an addition to other freight hauliers/courier services as well?

[jonessg3]

@chunkylimey the purpose for which this was built has now passed. It simply doesn't match modern communication systems. It's not much use as a general delivery system - you'd still need trans shipment onto local road delivery any way. The loading gauge is tiny, and all that multiple handling would be horribly inefficient.

[4Arthur2Dent]

@chunkylimey

> Surely this would be a perfect way to reduce the freight and congestion on London roads?

Since it doesn't run where the mail needs to go, or anything much else nowadays, no it wouldn't!

[LikeMindedIncident]

@chunkylimey Interesting point, perhaps the only way of bringing this back would be through private hands, not something I'd advocate but I doubt the Guvment give a monkey's about this great once used system now..

[cjmillsnun]

@chunkylimey They did back in 2003. No one was interested.

[metraF40PH163]

No headlight / taillight? still Sweet

[TheVriendenopdefiets]

Brilliant Trainset

[jackiejayetv]

The reason it closed was the opening of the railnet terminal at willesden but that went over to road in2004!

[Sqaaak]

How ridiculous to have closed this excellent system, and now send by road. Insane. What kind of logic is that? It should have been expanded! The only way to create an expanding and prosperous economy is through massive public investment in capital infrastructure, not by shutting the productive economy down. Thanks for this great video!!!

[jimmiejam66]

All the Offices it went to are no longer big mail centres anymore except the Mount, just wasn't viable anymore.

[mickthegrey]

@Sqaaak The same kind of logic that says Royal Mail now wants to get rid of the postmen's bikes and replace them with vans.

[rabbithog]

what goes on down in those tunnells now, does the post office still have a use for them, its a shame really, you cant get better then that to carry mail across london

[rabbithog]

this is amazing, are these trains still in use today and if not why not

[A60stock]

It closed on 30 May 2003. I am told Royal Mail engineers have since maintained the railway including rolling stock in the condition it was in on that day as it was not officially closed only "mothballed". Will the Royal Mail ever make a final decision to either re-open or close?

[bronzeonion]

id love to ride through the tunnels in those wagons!

[whiteb89]

Awesome stuff. We need someone like Richard Branson to bring it back to life.

[JoeRoss1993]

Brilliant! 5 stras! shame though that the railway is now closed, you could get your post double quick back then! LOL!