Belgian Railway Stamps

The Scott catalog does not go far in explaining the use of Belgian railway stamps. The catalog section for these stamps is headed Parcel Post and Railway Stamps, but they bear the Q-prefixed identification numbers of parcel post stamps.

The catalog also implies that they may have other uses with a postal cancellation worth more than a railway cancels. What would be other uses besides parcel post, telegraph fees, perhaps? Were they valid on regular mail?

Nearly all the railway stamps I have show a box cancel with town or RR station name and a date. There are a couple with a cdc but unfortunately not legible as to time or place.

Did Belgium consider parcel post freight and not mail? Why the additional "railway" designation? Were these stamps sold only at railroad stations?

Thanks.

Don

Great question Don!
I'm surprised no one has ventured an answer.
Most of the stamps are common, so you and I can't be the only two wondering about these issues.

I am no expert in this area, but I remember something from my youth in the Netherlands. My dad had an electronics store back in the fifties, and we had quite an lot of packages to mail. I would get on my bike and ride to the nearest railway station. The clerk would take my package and write out a label. A stamp would go on the label which would be attached to the package and the package then would go on the train. I believe the stamp was a regular stamp in Holland.
If I remember well, the reason we took it to the RR station was speed. Taking it to the PO would do the same; it would also wind up on the train, but one or two days later.
I think Belgium ( and other European countries ) was the same way, only they used specific Railway stamps for that purpose!
Here in the States mail was also moved by rail; I do not know about parcels.
The practice of mailtrains has, at least in the Netherlands been abandoned.

Peter

Peter:

Thanks for the explanation. It sounds logical. I guess it comes down to the question as to why Scott's catalog adds the "railway stamp" designation to this group. Why not just parcel post stamps? Must be something else involved. Maybe someone from Belgium will provide the answer.

I don't have a current Scott catalog for Belgium, but the newest I have lists Parcel Post and Railways stamps issued in the late 1990s.

As DStamp notes, the Belgian railways are common. They must have used a ton of them. Were parcels that large a portion of Belgium's mail volume? It would be interesting to have more information on their usage.

Don

Here is an article from Linn's:
http://www.linns.com/howto/refreshe...rcourse.aspx

Thanks, Timm. Questions answered -- all I wanted to know about the Belgium Railway stamps.

Don

I would suspect that the Belgian railway/parcel post stamps are well known to collectors of train & railroad topicals. They are likely in high demand by those topical collectors since so many of the issues portray trains or locomotives.

Unused, mint, copies of some of them catalog fairly high (my most recent Scott for post-1940 Belgium is the 2011 edition). As examples, Q341 and 342; both issued in 1953; cataloged $250 and $225 respectively. Used copies of the two are a paltry $4 and $1.

A good reason why I should, and do collect used stamps whenever possible.

Thanks, Steve for the additional info.

Don

I think unused copies are very difficult to find because you had to go to a railwaystation with your parcel to post it.There it was weighed and they put the stamp on it .If you had to go there , there was no reason to buy stamps.
Now can can send your parcel from every post office , but before it was very limited.
Albert

I realize this topic is >4 years without a post, but I'm a newby to this forum, and also to Belgian railroad stamps. Here is one where I'm trying to determine the postmark "town":




Any thoughts?

Looks like Waremme with some extra letters.

Robert

Trainwreck,

That was one fast post! The 5th letter is definitely an E, so it's back to the drawing board.

Went throuh this list but nothing exactly...

http://www.anabel.be/internet/liste...ue-lettre-w/

I think the towns name is officially "Waremme" in Walloon but is very often spelled with to rr's as in Warremme. I found several Dutch articles on the net where it was spelled both ways,

Peter

Yes, I think you're right: Warremme it shall be!

This is a very helpful site for trying to figure out Belgian place names:

http://users.skynet.be/pjansse1/gen...laatsen.html

Some towns have several spellings; some seem to be missing. All in all, however, it's a definite asset.

I count 9 letters in the town name of the postmark. Warremme has eight. Hmm.