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    Narrow Gauge Railway Stamps: A Collector's Guide
    Narrow Gauge Railway Stamps: A Collector's Guide
    Narrow Gauge Railway Stamps: A Collector's Guide
    Ebook83 pages35 minutes

    Narrow Gauge Railway Stamps: A Collector's Guide

    By Howard Piltz

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    About this ebook

    This, the first of four books, looks at the treatment of varying aspects of public transport with the aid of postage stamps, either issued by the postal authorities of most of the worlds nations, or some of the railway companies themselves, especially heritage operators.It has long intrigued the author as to why narrow gauge systems throughout the world have demanded a far greater attention from the public and stamp producers than railway subjects from the standard gauge lines, which make up the vast majority of the western worlds major railway systems. The conclusion he has reached is that in most cases they are considered cute a truly abominable term, which is (thankfully) gradually fading from our vocabulary, but just how the author felt on first seeing engines of the Talyllyn Railway, in mid-Wales, from the top of the station approach at Tywyns Wharf Station: tiny little kettles in sparkling, rich green and lots of brass.The Talyllyn has the double honor of being the worlds first railway to be taken-over and operated by a preservation society in 1951, and also the first railway in the modern era to issue its own Railway Letter Service stamps, a practice that can be traced back to the very earliest of times, which allowed people in outlying areas to send letters by the railways to the nearest post office for onward transport. The Talyllyns first stamps were issued in 1957, and today the lucky collector can demand a substantial premium on the paltry issue value.From whatever origin or country, there is a huge variety of stamps covering narrow gauge railways, and usually they are attractive miniature works of art that make them very collectable. The author has not set out to cover every country or issue in these books, but to present a wide selection of those stamps that are note-worthy.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateNov 30, 2017
    ISBN9781473871809
    Narrow Gauge Railway Stamps: A Collector's Guide
    Author

    Howard Piltz

    Howard Piltz was born in Rose Grove, Lancashire, where his bedroom looked out across the railway. He is a life-long transport enthusiast with a special interest in railways and buses. For many years Howard has collected transport stamps, which has now grown into an extensive collection, covering most forms of land, sea and air subjects. This series of books is the result of many years research into the stamps and their origins. Howard is a member of the Chartered Institute of Transport, being awarded chartered status ten years ago. His other hobbies include model railways, narrow gauge railways and gardening.

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      Book preview

      Narrow Gauge Railway Stamps - Howard Piltz

      INTRODUCTION

      The two sides

      Collecting stamps brings a wonderful new view of the world that the collector – celebrated in the more formal title of the philatelist – is led through an amazing world of knowledge, where the inquisitive mind would ponder some mysteries of bygone times: Why, you may ask, do British postage stamps never, but never boast their country of origin, whilst Swiss ones bear the enigmatic title ‘Helvetia’ and, as if that is not difficult enough, then where are some far-off lands that these days only appear in our history books? Go south a tad, one might be told, to find Southern Rhodesia, or for that matter just a little more thought might be needed to give us the answer for that evocative name Tanganyika.

      Likewise, someone with a worldly interest in transport may find that the hobby will lead him – or her – all over the world, if not literally then as a by-product of studying the subject. There are a great many transport professionals who have worked on several different continents throughout their working lives to bring the benefit of their skills to areas one might consider under-developed in the areas of public transport. Personally, the author has spent many years as an enthusiast of most forms of public transport and has been to places that, until the advent of cheap air travel, seemed quite outlandish. Whilst he has never been to Indonesia, he has read, enthralled, of the fire-breathing dragons that abounded there; however, he has been to a lake on Vancouver Island on Canada’s Pacific coast where lived the world’s two largest flying boats rejoicing in the name of ‘Mars’, whilst it seemed to him at the time – he was 14 – quite exciting, but utterly easy in 1959, to talk himself onto the inaugural KLM Viscount flight from Manchester to Amsterdam, only to find there was no return flight home that day (memories of the heart-clutching scream from his Dad over the phone will never fade: ‘You’re WHERE?’) or a flight, not much later but this time with permission – and paid for – to go plane-spotting alone to the Paris Air Show. Not many years later, he visited the USA to look for the last gasps of two iconic forms of American transport – PCC trams in Newark, NJ, and the Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 electric locomotives. I could also go on a little too long about getting rather merry drinking the local brews in places like Prague, Lisbon or the countryside around Brussels whilst chasing trams.

      Coming Together with Works of Art

      At first sight it might seem a little odd that one should wish to combine these two totally disparate hobbies, but by good fortune the author happens to have a liking for both subjects and a long time ago began to appreciate that in stamps one could find the wonderful combination of transport history told within a glorious gallery of miniature works of art. See through the ages how the reproduction techniques on stamps have developed from simple monochrome etchings with formal, carefully sculpted borders such as this 1954 Fiji example with an illustration of a Leeds-built locomotive and celebrating the islands well-known sugar industry. Interestingly, apart from

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