In 1883 the parcel post was introduced and greatly increased the volume of the mail. In consequence it became necessary to send letters on special overnight trains from Euston to Carlisle - the wooden coaches of the railways carrying the iron men of the Post Office, sorting through the night. In 1983 the 42 Travelling Post Offices covered more than five million miles and carried 330 million first-class letters and two-and-a-half million Datapost bags.
Nigel Holmes travelled on the night mail trains from Whitehaven to Preston and back to Carlisle.
(First broadcast on BBC Radio Cumbria)