Night Mail

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