Far East British Mail by Trans-Siberian Railway

We were delighted to be able to welcome Peter Pugh to Northwich to show us part one of this presentation ‘Another Bloody Railway, Part 1 (Far East British Mail by Trans-Siberian Railway 1891 -1911)’.

The informative talk took us through the development of the mail service on the Trans Siberian Railway and, illustrated with maps, postcards, and photographs, he showed us how this railway helped open up mail routes to and from the Chinese Treaty Ports from the 1890’s onwards. Mail from these ports went westwards towards UK and the USA along the railway and the newly opened mail route shortened journey times for mail from the Far East quite significantly.

The route was temporarily suspended during The Russo-Japanese War of 1904 but upon its reopening, the mail route was revived and the remainder of the presentation took us through the routes, rates, and dates. Dotted with pictures, postcards, information on bridges and trains, the whole presentation was extremely well received by the society, who would like to extend our warm thanks to him for traveling to see us. We understand that there are further parts to the story and we look forward to welcoming him back again in the near future.

Below are a few images from the presentation: