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Postal Museum Visit

on

26th February 2018

We gathered for a sustaining lunch at Kennedy’s on the Goswell Road.  As the snowflakes fluttered around outside we enjoyed a hot cup of tea, our selected fish and chips along with chosen dessert.

We then walked briskly (it was very cold!) to the Postal Museum. On arrival we were allocated wristbands and a time to catch our train. We crossed the road to the Rail Mail, a narrow gauge train in the tunnels under London. We climbed in, two to a compartment, and travelled below Royal Mail’s Mount Pleasant sorting office. We were shown the original station platforms and heard about the people who worked on it and kept the mail travelling through London for 22 hours a day. The tunnels extend from Paddington Station in the west to Liverpool Street Station in the east. Our journey lasted 15 minutes, during which time we heard about how hard the engineers and postal workers had worked to keep the mail train running right up to 2003 when it closed in favour of surface transport.

At the Postal Museum an interesting exhibition covers the history of the postal service, including beautifully restored old postal carriages, and many historic items from the time of the first adhesive postage stamp, the penny black, in 1840 onwards.

Many of us finished the afternoon with tea and cake in the café and looked around the gift shop. We were also delighted to take away a souvenir commemorative stamp of Rail Mail mounted on a club card designed by the Master. It was a day to remember and a splendid way to spend a cold, snowy Monday in February.

The Postal Museum and the Rail Mail are open every day from 10.00 – 17.00.

                                   Elizabeth Peart

Below are a few pictures from the event. Click on an image to expand and scroll through.

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