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Mainline Railway Stamps (Hardback)

A Collector's Guide

Transport > Trains & Railways

By Howard Piltz
Imprint: Pen & Sword Transport
Series: Transport Philately Series
Pages: 99
Illustrations: 250
ISBN: 9781473871908
Published: 11th February 2019

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For this second book in the Transport Philately series on public transport issues featured on postage stamps, once again the author will combine two of his life-long hobbies as he looks at railways around the world on standard gauge tracks that encompasses the majority of the western worlds major railway arteries. The book will also illustrate railways on other, similar gauges of track where they constitute a country's major arteries, but it is not an exhaustive survey encompassing every country and every issue for that one needs to refer to major catalogue issues by such well-known authorities as Stanley Gibbons Plc.

There have been many and varied reasons why postal authorities have issued stamps featuring railway subjects, varying from major anniversaries to national pride, the latter often from the former Eastern-bloc countries but that is not by all means.

The Royal Mail in the UK has certainly not ignored railways, especially in later years, and the author will visit probably more of his native country's stamps than most other countries, but he's biased.

The author often looks in his albums to try to understand why a particular country will sometimes be represented by bulging sections, whilst others are represented by but one or two stamps. And so, the book follows the story around the world in roughly an eastern journey, learning about some of the national histories on the way and admiring the attentions of some extremely accomplished artists that mean philatelists and rail-lovers alike can enjoy many beautiful miniature works of art.

"These well researched books are profusely illustrated with examples from many countries."

York Model Engineers Newsletter - November 2021

Featured as prize part of crossword competition feature

Rail, 9th October 2019

This is just a beautiful book to hold. The size and weight feel satisfying in the hand. It’s handsomely put together, and the vibrant images leaping from the page during a flick-through just made me want to tear straight in.

Mainline Railway Stamps is tremendously readable... A real joy of this book for me was a constant stream of little wow! moments.

Read the full review here

The Punk Philatelist

As featured by

Cyfnodolyn Rheilffordd Ffestiniog Railway Magazine, Summer 2019

As with the Narrow Gauge Railway Stamps publication, the British Isles section in this book contains samples of the Railway Letter Service stamps produced by heritage railways as well as railway-themed stamps produced by Royal Mail and the Irish Post Office.
Recommended, and available from Harbour Station shop.

Howard Piltz, Ffestiniog Railway Magazine, February 2019

A visually interesting book.

Read the full Spanish review here

Miniaturas JM

In my youth I had a respectable collection of stamps, just as every other 1950s schoolboy did, but for the life of me I cannot remember ever having a stamp in my collection featuring railways. This is a beautifully illustrated collection of railway stamps from all over the world. A collectors’ item…

Books Monthly

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

The book has been well researched, well written, and with some excellent pictures of many railway stamps from around the world. I can see a number of stamps which I have in my collection and I am not a railways specialist. This is a handy reference book for the seasoned collector and the beginner alike, a book which I can highly recommend.

Click here to read the full review

Reviewed by Paul Diggett via Amazon, Goodreads. Guardian Bookshop, Library Thing & Waterstones

A book that, although small in size, is very large in terms of the quality of its illustrations and the philatelic information it contains. In Addition, like all the books of Pen and Sword Books, it has a very careful layout.

Read the full Spanish review here

Unes Cuantos Trenes Blog, Jorge del Valle

About Howard Piltz

Howard Piltz was born in Hazel Grove, in Cheshire, where his bedroom overlooked the crossing of two railway lines, and grew up in the final years of Stockport’s trams. He is a life-long transport enthusiast with a special interest in railways and buses. For many years Howard has collected stamps and more recently specialised on transport subjects of almost all kinds. This series of books is the result of many years research into the stamps and their origin.

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