How it works

What arrives

Every month, an envelope. In it, on two sheets of good paper, a letter from Edie Ramsden, crossing keeper, written to her husband Tom, who is away at the war. On the back, a note on what really happened that month, with sources in the archive. With it, a numbered collector card, one piece of replica railway paper from Edie’s branch line (a ticket, a label, a notice), and a puzzle whose answers come next month.

Main Line members also get an A4 art print of that month’s scene and a reference sheet for modellers, posted flat.

When

We close the list on the 25th of each month and post in the first days of the next. Second class post now delivers on alternate weekdays, so we say “arrives in the first week of the month” and we mean it. If an envelope goes missing, tell us and we’ll send another, no questions.

How to join

Choose Branch Line or Main Line, pay by card, and you’re in. Join by the 25th and your first envelope is in next month’s post. Join after the 25th and it’s the month after.

Choose a membership

How to stop, pause or change

Sign in to your account. You can pause for up to three months a year, change your address, switch tiers, or cancel, all online, all in a couple of clicks. Cancelling stops the next payment and the next envelope; you keep everything you’ve received. You can also cancel within 14 days of your first envelope arriving for a refund of that month.

The archive

Members can read every past letter online, in a large-print version if they prefer, search the notes, see every card, and check puzzle answers. New members can catch up on the story from the start. Archive access ends when a membership ends.