Classic Locos series finally runs out of puff
The last in the Classic Locomotives series of miniature sheets, featuring Welsh railways, will be released on February 20.
Its four stamps illustrate two engines pulling passenger trains and two in industrial use; the earliest railways in Wales were built for industrial purposes, serving collieries and smelting works.
The sheet border has a background image of the British Railways class 5101 No4126 locomotive hauling a passenger train across the Crumlin Viaduct in Monmouthshire, which was the third highest railway viaduct in the world but was dismantled in 1967.
Designed by Delaney Design Consultants, the sheet is printed in litho by the Cartor division of International Security Printers. It follows similar sheets featuring the historic locomotives of England in 2011, Scotland in 2012 and Northern Ireland in 2013.
VERDICT
COMMEMORATIVE WORTH
The railways were key to the industrial growth of Wales, but this is merely a thematic series
QUALITY OF DESIGN
The designers have hunted out good historical images, but there’s little creativity involved
WOW FACTOR
Other than railway fanatics, few will be sorry to see the brakes put on this series, which springs few surprises
1st class LMS 2F No7720
The London, Midland & Scottish loco is shown leaving Britannia Bridge, over the Menai Strait, at the head of a Bangor-to-Holyhead passenger train, around 1930.
78p Hunslet No589 Blanche
Built by the Hunslet Engine Co in Leeds, Blanche is photographed on The Cob, an embankment built as part of a land reclamation project in the Glaslyn estuary near Porthmadog, on the Ffestiniog Railway in 1964.
88p W&LLR No822 The Earl
The Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway’s workhorse The Earl waits patiently on Union Street in Welshpool, Powys, while a car is pushed off the line.
£1.28 BR 5600 No5652
The British Railways locomotive heads a coal train at Cwmbargoed, near Merthyr Tydfil, in 1959, on a line which is still used to transport coal to Aberthaw Power Station on the South Glamorgan coast near Barry.
OTHER PRODUCTS
In the presentation pack, railway historian David Gwyn recounts the history of steam locomotives in Wales. A first day cover and stamp cards are also available.
PRICES
Miniature sheet £3.54