MUMMIES IN POST OFFICE TUBE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 193, 10 May 1919, Page 12

MUMMIES IN POST OFFICE TUBE

A WAR-TIME REPOSITORY. , When tlio building of the London Post Office Railway was first undertaken it was confidently expected, that it would iavo been completed some months ago, but the demand for use in making munitions of such materials as .were required for the construction of the railway has greatly hampered progress. To dato the tunnelling is complete and connection with the surface lias been carried two places, but that is as far as matters havo'been carried. The tunnel, which is for tho underground carriage of mails, has been bored from tho Eastern District Office in Whitcchapol to Pnddinston, via Liverpool Street Station, the King Edward Building (G.P.O.),'Mount Pleasant, and the West Central Office. At those points it is proposed to construct stations. The tunnel is steel lined and circular; it is Oft. acrossi broadening to 21ft. at tho stations. A 1 doublo line is to bo laid in it, and in this respect it differs from the passenger "tube," in which a . separate tunnel is bored for each line. When the line is in working order, about two years hence, tho trains will travel without driver or conductor aboard, and will bo automatically controlled by distant switches. The first effect of tho new system of carrying mails will bo to reduce , the horse and motor transport, expedite sorting, and speed up delivery, which hitherto has been much hampered by fog in winter and the congested stato of the streets. During the war the tunnel was found ' of'the greatest use for the storago'of valuables out of the way of bombs and shells. These valuables included a largo number of. pictures and. other exhibits from London galleries (including mum ; raios from tho British Museum),, besides a quantity of property belonging to the King. . . !