Belgian Railway Stamps

amccleaf1, thanks for the welcome. I created an album for chamfered rectangles many years ago (it is discussed on page 12 of this thread) and I still use the expanded version of that which lists the cancels alphabetically. I now have albums for the Chamfered rectangles, Circle types, and Hexagons and I am working on an album for Standard rectangles as well as still working on expanding the Chamfered album. I am unable to contact anyone here directly since I am a new member here, but I welcome anyone who would want to email me directly regarding the topic.

Stationcancels - Ah, so you are the creator/owner of the pages discussed herein. There seemed to be great interest in these (especially if you have developed more for other types of cancels), so maybe others on here will reach out.

In my own collection, I have taken a very broad approach, and created a page for each station name I have encountered. Then I collect one of each different issue / denomination / cancel type combination for that station and mount them on the page. Completion is not a goal, but this approach does allow me to retain many different examples for each station which allows for further study of similarities and differences. The different naming in the different languages does sometimes trip me up.

Some Belgian railway stations, names in French, Dutch and some English;

https://www.sinfin.net/railways/stations/belg.php



Peter

I found this piece very interesting with the imperforate stamp tied to the waybill. I originally pulled this piece aside because the Courtrai Station cancel wasn't in my database list and it took me several looks at it before I caught the imperforate. Since cancels are my specialty moreso than the stamps themselves, I would appreciate any feedback. I was always under the impression that the imperfs were not used but I could be misinformed.

This is a new cancel to my extensive database and I cannot make out the last word. The top line is clearly AALST-OOST and the first word on the bottom is clearly GOEDEREN. The last word on the bottom seems to be something like LOQQS but that doesn't make sense to me, even as a Dutch/Flemish abbreviation. Any help is appreciated.

GOEDERENLOODS = goods warehouse.

This was a goods (freight) station. The public goods warehouse (freight depot) was opened 1 November 1892 together with a customs office.

NSK, I see it now. Thank you so much for the help!

A lovely new discovery for me. Not in my database and such a clear strike...

All of the recent activity on the forums regarding Belgian railway stamps, cancels and waybills has been very interesting to me, as it has only been fairly recently that I have had very many of them to work with, having gotten some in lots purchased. Keep it coming!

I picked up a stack of waybills recently and several of them have these stickers applied at the bottom right corner. What is the purpose of the sticker?

The stamp - it, probably, does not cancel anything - reads "DÉPOT CENTRAL DES OBJETS TROUVÉS", i.e., "central deposit of found objects." You might want to search for information on what was considered 'found,' My guess is that these were parcels that were sent for collection at a station but were never collected by the intended recipient. Otherwise, I would expect it to have been delivered to an address on the parcel. The labels may identify the item's registry number, so a clerk knows where to find it if someone calls in to collect it after all.

Edit: rue Spinette is the road behind the current post office next to the station in Flémalle-Haute, across the tracks.

Edit for spelling of Flémalle-Haute.

Could it be something to do with lost property? It appears to have been sent from the station to wherever the docket is being made out

Very likely.

There is a stamp at top right that identifies the sender as the Belgian national railway company's 'central deposit of found items' at Brussels Q.L. and was sent to the address in Flémalle-Haute. It could be an item someone had lost and that was returned to its owner.

Jean Hirt may have been the owner living next to the station in Flémalle-Haute, or he was some railway official and the item was collected from his office at that address.

Edit: Bruxelles Q.L. is Bruxelles-Luxembourg Station. In 1970, this was Bruxelles Quartier-Leopold (Q.L.).

That is great information, thank you. I will look at some of the others that have similar stickers and see if they too are for lost items.

Taking a closer look at the item, it is quite sure the item was collect at the bureau restant of the station in Flémalle-Haute and not delivered.