‘Driving the Mail Rail is a bit like going into a time warp’
ABEL HOLSBOROUGH GETS TO DRIVE TRAINS DEEP UNDERGROUND FOR LONDON’S CENTURY-OLD MAIL RAIL, AT NATIONAL LOTTERY-SUPPORTED THE POSTAL MUSEUM
When history buff Abel Holsborough started job hunting, they wanted something more exciting than the average parttime role usually offers. Something with a sense of adventure, that would bring to life the story of the city to which they had recently moved.
The 27-year-old south Londoner has certainly ticked all those boxes – and more. Each week they head underground to drive trains on London’s 100-year-old Mail Rail, which has been perfectly preserved by The Postal Museum.
Formerly known as the Post Office Railway, the narrow-gauge system opened in 1927 and operated for 76 years deep under the city’s
Abel spends their shifts showing hundreds of tourists the atmospheric maze of subterranean tunnels and station platforms – many virtually unchanged since the 1930s – deep below Royal Mail’s Mount Pleasant sorting office in central London.
But Abel knew winning the role was a long shot when they responded to a tweet from the museum seeking drivers for
Mail Rail because they didn’t even have a licence to drive a car, let alone a train.
LONDON’S HISTORY
“I ’ve always been interested in London’s local history and weird, obscure little stories, so I had heard about the museum when it was being set up in 2016,” explains Abel, who studies fine art at Wimbledon College of Arts.
“Then about 18 months later I saw something on Twitter asking for people to apply to drive their trains and I thought, ‘ Yes, alright, I’ll give that a go.’
“I honestly didn’t think it would go very well because I’d never done anything like it before, but I’m really
There’s constant maintenance to the trains and track, so the National Lottery funding has been a huge help
qualify to drive the trains. good causes every week. the funding has been a huge help.”
While they love the excitement of the children who come aboard, for Abel the best thing about the job is the smell of the tunnels themselves: “I can’t even describe it. It’s a musty
“We had loads of grain so we could keep milling. I used to go in once a fortnight but suddenly it went
FURTHER FUNDING
The mill received a large grant from The National Lottery to help restore and reopen it in 2015, and recently it benefited from further funding to open an
knowledge, and help younger people get involved and understand where their food is coming from,” says Abel – who admits to only having baked one loaf of sourdough during lockdown. “It was really hard!” they laugh.