advertisements, suggestions for further reading and an index. The text charts the company's often troubled financial history, its numerous changes of ownership and plentiful road-going models – albeit none of which were made in significant volumes. It also deals with Aston Martin’s long
competition history, not least at Brooklands. There are of course much grander histories of Aston Martin and many books on the various models and their competition exploits, but it would be hard to beat this as a general introduc- tion to the marque.
Chris Bass BTM VISIT TO THE POSTAL MUSEUM News
A miniature train now takes visitors through the original tunnels and past station platforms under Mount Pleasant (Tom Jestico).
Mail Rail
and take an early morning trip to see a railway? Mail Rail and the Postal Museum, that’s what. Thanks to Angela Hume’s excellent chaperon- ing, we arrived at the museum in time for a coffee and a look round before descending to the depths of Mount Pleasant for a short ride on the ‘bijou’ trains. This took us on a loop around the system and we were back within 20 minutes. Lunch at the Belgo restaurant followed and we were back at Brooklands in good time for a return to self- driven transport home.
W
The interactive museum is fascinating and well worth a visit with children, while the café does a brisk trade in coffee and snacks. Best of all, however, is a ride on Mail Rail. The system was never designed to carry passengers and the purpose-built battery-powered trains are neces- sarily snug. The journey takes us back in time to when letters and parcels were automatically moved 6½ miles under London from
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hat does it take for 30 or so confirmed petrol-heads to abandon their vehicles
Whitechapel to Paddington. Four million letters were carried daily between nine stations, serving two main line stations and major sorting offices. Unbelievably this system had its roots 150 years ago, when a pneumatic line was built between the Post Office’s North Western sorting office to Euston station. A second line was subse- quently constructed to the City’s General Post Office. Cast iron trollies were loaded with parcels, letters, and even pheasants and other game, and sucked or pushed by air through hermetically sealed tunnels to their various destinations. It was the Crossrail project of its age. Eventually, with improvements in surface transport, the system was closed down in 1874. It lay dormant for 15 years until renewed interest in underground services led to the tunnels being used for electric- ity and telephone cable networks. In the early 1900s London had a serious traffic
problem, as now, and the Post Office realised the potential of the tunnel network. Learning from similar systems in Chicago and Berlin, work on the present system was started in 1911 and, when
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