All aboard for the railways theme!

At Buckingham Covers, I think it is fair to say that we like our railway covers and there is such a range of things to collect, writes Brian Austin. This month we go back to 1980 and the 150th anniversary of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and no, we are now not that far away from the 200th.

This is the official cover for the celebrations and as well as the stamps there was also a 55p Railway Letter stamp issued. Interestingly, though Benham (who produced our example) did a special cover they did not sponsor a postmark, instead using the Liverpool and Manchester ‘Wheel’ first day of issue postmarks and the Great Railway Exposition Manchester special postmark. This cover is signed by the then Chairman of British Rail, Sir Peter Parker and you should be looking to pay around £40 for his signature.

Signed railway covers are few and far between and you can spend hours working out who has signed a cover; always remember, if you can’t recognise the signature, it could be the train driver. Railway ‘celebrity’ signatures you should look out for include former Flying Scotsman owners Alan Peglar and William Mcalpine, steeplejack and train enthusiast Fred Dibnah and even record producer and train owner Pete Waterman.

Two final tips for this issue: there are lots of full set covers which are not first day (remember the date is 12 March 1980), this is fine, but remember the postmarks on these might not be as rare as you think. Secondly don’t concentrate just on special postmarks and TPOS. A few preserved railways did special covers, but used the local first day of issue postmark, so look out for these from the Talyllyn, Big Four, Worth Valley, Festiniog and Llanberis Lake railways.