Getting the Mail through

At one time the railways carried most of the Post Office's mail which needed carting between towns and cities. Passenger trains were used for this and whilst mail bags would be carried in the guard's compartment, it was often the case that a  mail van the size of a passenger carriage was added to the front or rear of a passenger train. At major stations such as Birmingham and Derby huge quantities of mail were loaded and unloaded.

One evening my train was pulling out of Burton upon Trent when there was a blinding flash. A small fire broke out in the electrical wiring between the engine and the first carriage and we ground to a halt.  The driver put out the fire and we continued to Derby. 

At Derby it was announced that the fire had been caused by a failure of the electric carriage heating.  After much deliberation it was decided that the problem had been caused by the heating equipment on  a carriage in the middle of the train.  The simple solution would have been to divide the train leaving the defective carriage and the carriages behind it at Derby.  The problem was that the last vehicle was a van packed with mail and the mail had to get through.

More deliberation.  It was decided to use a shunting engine to detach the defective carriage and then join the train up again.  Once the train had been reassembled we were 90 minutes late. Off we went and within twenty yards another blinding flash and  again we ground to a halt.

By this stage some passengers were very irate as they realised they would miss connections for Doncaster and all points north and there were no other trains that night. 

It was decided to commandeer one of the then new high speed trains standing in the station and run it to Sheffield from whence a special train would be put on to take passengers onward to Doncaster.  Arrangements would be in place at Doncaster to ensure passengers were not stranded.

We left Derby two hours late.  In those days all trains were run by British Rail.  Now, with several  train operating companies it would be impossible to make the arrangements that were made that night in Derby.  Such is progress.