The Postal Museum blog Ghost Trains

Ghost Trains

Are there ghosts in Mail Rail? Archivist Helen discovered an article in the 1928 Post Office magazine that talks 'Underground Wizardry'...

St. Martin’s le Grand, April 1928

The Post Office Tube Railway

‘…The opening of the railway had a good “press “—as journalists put it; and the public were treated to such descriptions of it as ” The Robot Railway”: “Post Office Wonder Railway”: “Ghost Trains run by Robot hands,” and so on. “The Times ” dealt with it in a leading article headed: ” Underground Wizardry,” and the opening paragraph of it gives as concise an explanation of the magic as we have seen:—” The electric tube railway which the Post Office has built deep in the London clay, for the conveyance of letter and parcel mails between Paddington and Whitechapel and intermediate points, is a notable example of mechanism acting automatically in a manner which seems almost intelligent…’

Read the full article below.

– Helen Dafter, Archivist

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