Thursday 14 April 2016

Rail Snail Mail

I'm live-blogging this from the comfort of Irish Rail's Cork-Dublin train service (with free wi-fi) and unlike yesterday's post, I deliberately set out to photograph this beautiful specimen at Cork's Kent station.

It is, apparently, the oldest example of a mailbox still in use in Ireland, dating from 1857. It's an "economy" type, since it lacks any decorative moldings or royal cypher, and it has the unusual feature of the aperture being set into the top.

Since it's indoors, it's beautifully preserved, and still doing its job. I'll be in Dublin by the next time the rail snail mail is collected.