Trains, Mozambique

It's been a while since ive been able to participate in Viridian's blog...but here we are to stop that tradition.
And well, today's theme is 'anything you want'....so in order not to think toooo much and negotiate with myself what to pick, ill go with my favourite topic of trains :) Sorry :)

And here I have two FANTASTIC souvenir sheets I received thanks to Goran who had arranged them for me!

these s/s were both issued in 1999.

The left one depicts the Railway Station in Frankfurt with the Talent DMU train in front of it. DMU stands for Diesel Multiple Unit, which is a multiple unit train consisting of multiple carriages powered by one or more on-board diesel engines. They may also be referred to as a railcar or railmotor, depending on country. These trains have gained tremendous popularity in Europe, where they have proven their worth in passenger service on more lightly used intercity routes that wouldn’t be economical to operate using more conventional locomotive hauled trains.

The right s/s depicts the Anhalter Bahnhof, which is a former railway terminus in Berlin in Germany. In front of it a 2-8-2 German steam locomotive is presented. In a 2-8-2, the wheel arrangement of the two leading wheels is on one axle (usually in a leading truck), the eight powered and coupled driving wheels are on four axles, and the two trailing wheels are on one axle (usually in a trailing truck) This configuration of steam locomotive is most often referred to as a Mikado (frequently shortened to Mike), but it is also referred to as a MacArthur. The 2-8-2 was particularly popular in North America, but was also used in continental Europe and elsewhere. The German 2-8-2s were built in both passenger and freight types where the passenger locomotives were used mainly in a mountainous terrain.

to see what others have come up with today, click on this big button below

wishing you all a very nice weekend!

History of Latvian Railway, Latvia

I know ive really neglected this blog, but you know that im awful in juggling between the two of them...and that in general am an awful time manager..but anyways, I hope to be able to stick to some more regular postings here...and bother you with my trains and railways in general....sorry :)

Elena sent me this fantastic Latvian FDC, said to commemorate the history of the railway in the country.

Unfortunately not much info I could come across on the net regarding this particular issue, but other sources had this to say:

-The history of rail transport in Latvia began with the construction in 1860 of a railway from Abrene (now Pytalovo) to Dinaburg (now Daugavpils), 160 km in length, as part of the Saint Petersburg – Warsaw Railway. More intensive development of railways in Latvia commenced the following year, 1861, when the 232 km long Riga - Dinaburg railway was opened. It connected with the Saint Petersburg – Warsaw Railway, and thus joined the Latvian railways with the Russian rail network. For the rest of the second half of the nineteenth century, the intensive construction of railways continued. Lines constructed during that period included Dinaburg–Radviliškis, Mitau (now Jelgava)–Muravieva, and others. From the 1890s, narrow gauge lines (750 mm) were built to complement the broad gauge lines (1,524 mm). Most of the narrow-gauge railways were later converted to broad gauge, but then dismantled in the second half of the twentieth century.


This stamp was issued on August 5, 2010.
perforation: comb13 1/4 : 13 1/2
printing:      offset
face value:  40 Santimi