Mind your head!
It's quite an experience riding in these cars on the restored section of Mail Rail, the old Post Office railway under London. Most of it is through an 8' bore tube, so those curved covers are locked down over you and you're sitting with your knees under your chin the whole time. These have got to be the smallest passenger-carrying tube trains ever, and not for the claustrophobic, but it's good fun and really fascinating!
It was built as an automated system with driverless trains operating on the 3rd rail system to carry mail between London's major sorting offices and railway termini. Rendered obsolete by new communications technology, parts of it have now been restored as a tourist attraction, with trains operating on battery power for a 17 minute ride - or more if the train comes to a stop because a passenger has leaned against the cover and triggered the safety cut out! (It wasn't me, honest!)
Mind your head!
It's quite an experience riding in these cars on the restored section of Mail Rail, the old Post Office railway under London. Most of it is through an 8' bore tube, so those curved covers are locked down over you and you're sitting with your knees under your chin the whole time. These have got to be the smallest passenger-carrying tube trains ever, and not for the claustrophobic, but it's good fun and really fascinating!
It was built as an automated system with driverless trains operating on the 3rd rail system to carry mail between London's major sorting offices and railway termini. Rendered obsolete by new communications technology, parts of it have now been restored as a tourist attraction, with trains operating on battery power for a 17 minute ride - or more if the train comes to a stop because a passenger has leaned against the cover and triggered the safety cut out! (It wasn't me, honest!)