Beneath the streets of central London lies one of the city’s lesser-known engineering feats—the Post Office Railway, more commonly known as the Mail Rail. Built in the early 20th century and officially opened in 1927, the driverless electric railway carried letters and parcels between key sorting offices and railway stations, including Paddington, Mount Pleasant, and Liverpool Street. The tunnels, only 2 feet wide and running for over six miles, allowed mail to move across the capital in a fraction of the time it took above ground, unaffected by London’s constant congestion.

The trains, such as the preserved unit pictured here, were designed to operate automatically, hauling specially built mail containers along narrow tracks deep below the city. Each train could carry up to 12 tons of post at speeds of up to 40 miles per hour, operating 22 hours a day at the network’s peak. The system remained in service until 2003, when changing logistics and new road systems made it redundant.

Today, visitors to the Postal Museum in Clerkenwell can ride a restored section of the railway and see the machinery that once kept London’s communication network in motion. The preserved infrastructure—brick tunnels, signal systems, and compact rolling stock—stands as a rare example of early automation in transport history, reflecting Britain’s long-standing innovation in engineering and urban logistics.

A preserved Royal Mail Post Bus, once a familiar sight across rural Britain, is seen here on display with its signature red and gold livery. Introduced in 1967, the Post Bus service was an innovative hybrid of public transport and postal logistics, providing passenger seats on vehicles that also delivered mail along remote routes where dedicated bus services were uneconomical. Operated by Royal Mail in partnership with local councils, these vehicles—often based on small vans or minibuses—served isolated villages across Scotland, Wales, and the English countryside.

Each bus carried both letters and up to a dozen passengers, connecting rural communities to larger towns while ensuring that even the most remote addresses received daily mail service. The scheme ran for over four decades before its gradual discontinuation by 2017, marking the end of a uniquely British solution to the challenges of rural mobility and communication.