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