RAILWAY PHILATELIC GROUP
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Welcome to the Home Page of the Railway Philatelic Group. Are you a stamp collector? Are you interested in railways? If the answer to these questions is yes, the RPG is the organisation for you. With 450 members worldwide, an Annual Convention, a quarterly journal, an exchange packet and an auction twice a year, membership of the Group will enable you to make contact with other collectors who share your interests and passion for railways past and present. The interests of members are many and various. Here are some of them: Thematics. Thousands
of stamps worldwide show superb miniatures of steam, diesel and electric
locomotives. Others show railway pioneers, stations, signals, bridges,
viaducts, tunnels and other aspects of railway working. One of the challenges
of thematic collecting is to assemble such stamps in order to tell a coherent
story. |
News |
The first issue of our journal ‘Railway Philately,’
September, 1966. |
Travelling Post Offices (TPOs). From 1830, when the Liverpool to Manchester Railway was opened, trains have been used to carry mail. It was soon realised that time could be saved if the mail were to be sorted while in transit. This was the genesis of the TPO. |
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Railway Station Postmarks. With the
railways coming into prominence as major carriers of the mail, the railway
station was the obvious site for a postal sorting office. The postmarks of these
station offices are eagerly sought after by railway philatelists. Railway Sub Offices (RSOs). A
peculiarly British invention was the Railway Sub Office, a small town or
village post office, which exchanged mail directly with a railway travelling
post office rather than with its own Head Office. Railway Letter
Stamps. In certain circumstances the Railway companies could deliver
mail more quickly than the Post Office. From 1891 until relatively recent
times special stamps called railway letter stamps were issued for the purpose
of conveying railway letters. The issue and use of railway letter stamps was
governed by Act of Parliament because the Post Office had a monopoly for the
delivery of letters. Even today some of the preserved railway lines issue
their own stamps for use by tourists. |
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Railway Parcel Stamps. The Post
Office enjoyed no such monopoly for the carriage of parcels and packets. From
the earliest times the Railway Companies have issued their own stamps for the
carriage of various types of goods. To locate such stamps is both rewarding
and exciting. |
Volume 37, No.1 of ‘Railway Philately,’ December, 2002. |
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