Night Mail - Public Service Broadcasting

Alright boys, stand clear

8:30 pm, Weekdays and Sundays

The down Postal Special leaves Euston for Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen

The Postal Special is a fast express, but it carries no passengers

Half a million letters are sorted and picked up or dropped during the night

This is the Night Mail crossing the border

Bringing the cheque and the postal order

Letters for the rich, letters for the poor

The shop at the corner and the girl next door

Five hundred million letters every year

Trains from Bristol, Cardiff, Manchester, Stoke, Liverpool and Birmingham bring

a thousand bags of mail to the north

This is the Night Mail crossing the border

Bringing the cheque and the postal order

Letters for the rich, letters for the poor

The shop at the corner and the girl next door

Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb

The gradient’s against her, but she’s on time

This is the Night Mail crossing the border

Bringing the cheque and the postal order

Letters for the rich, letters for the poor

The shop at the corner and the girl next door

Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb

The gradient’s against her, but she’s on time

Past cotton-grass and moorland boulder

Shovelling white steam over her shoulder

Snorting noisily as she passes

Silent miles of wind-bent grasses

Birds turn their heads as she approaches

Stare from the bushes at her blank-faced coaches

This is the Night Mail crossing the border

Bringing the cheque and the postal order

Letters for the rich, letters for the poor

The shop at the corner and the girl next door

Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb

The gradient’s against her, but she’s on time

She’s on time

She’s on time