Belgian Railway Cancelations - List Wanted

Hi all,

I was wondering if someone has a list of all the Belgian Rail cancelations that where used, like the ones below.




I found this site with a list of all the Belgian Railway stations http://users.telenet.be/pk/en/stations.htm and another with info about the stations http://spoorweggeschiedenis.be/
Where all those stations used for mail and has every station from the previous sites his own cancel? Or does someone has a better list or reference about the stations with their own cancelation like the ones above?

Thanks

Vincent

I collect these also. There was an album produced a few years ago which I use. The album is great but there are many towns unlisted. I have never found a complete computer searchable list.

The list I found is literally every railway station in Belgium so I suspect that it is too extensive. I highly doubt that every station was used for mail.

Hi all. Belgium is one of my special interests and I too collect the Belgian railway cancellations. I have an old map for the Benelux area that was published some years ago - not sure of the date, but, I would guess that it is at least 50 to 60 years old. It must have been from an old atlas as there are page numbers (419-22)on them. It is no where near complete for the Netherlands but is complete for Belgium and Luxembourg. There are several hundred Belgian railway stations listed. Unfortunately, the map is too large for any scanner. It has been folded in the past. Maybe, once I get my scanner set up, I'll try to scan it in for here?

Chimo

Bujutsu

While no expert on Belgian mail services I know that it is very unlikely every railway station was involved with mail is slight. A mail train to maintain speed has to go between major cities only. Usually mail would go from smaller towns by road to a big centre and be taken by train from there. It is just possible that SNCB had some contract to receive or carry local mail on local trains to bigger centres but this wasn't the normal way the worlds mail services operated. IN Belgium did the little road side tramways carry any mail or small packets.
I have some Belgian railway "postage stamps" how exactly were they used?

The above may be correct now but it was not the case in earlier years. The concept of "mail train" should not be used here.
A mail train indeed would go between large cities, but regular mail could be taken to any station and would be put on a regular train to a nearby larger city. Any railway station could have handled mail and/or parcel post

Peter

Like Peter said, I heard/read somewhere thatbhere in Belgium you could take your mail/parcel to any railway station. The larger stations would sent it faster than the little ones so the larger where 2-3 days faster. I think they also sent the mail with a passenger train to a larger train station.
So I think that when I take the list of stations that I posted and then exclude the stations that where unoccupied I will have a good list to start with. I was only hoping someone already did the research and had that list.

Peter, Thanks for the definite information. Was the post sent via the railways sent under the auspices of the Belgian post office or was it a railway organised parallel service as in the UK.

In the US, a sack of outbound mail would be hung next to the tracks, and the next train to pass would grab it - even if that train did not stop at that station.

I doubt very much that this idea originated in the US



Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey (who wants to know how a town could be large enough for a train station and too small for even a small contract post office)

It matters not for this style of pickup done completely on the fly, even at 40mph or perhaps even faster. And, of course, a bag of arriving mail and/or a bundle of newspapers just got thrown off the train somewhere around the station, maybe right on the platform. So anyone waiting for a following train or sleeping dogs had to be paying attention!

Mail here likely originated from a PO somewhere nearby and was "caught" on an extended arm specifically by an RPO car where postal personnel (not train employees) would be processing mail en route. With several trains passing a day with RPO cars, the locale could have several dropoffs and pickups a day. A pile of parcels would require a stop. Take that, USPS!!!

RAILWAY PARCEL POST CANCELLATIONS OF BELGIUM is the catalogue you want - copies are available on the Delcampe website from Belgian Philatelic Study Circle

If you happen to be in Toronto, a visit to the Harry Sutherland Library in the Greene Foundation will reveal 4 books on the subject of Belgian Railway cancellations.

I am attaching scans of extracts from the online library catalogue to provide info for searches elsewhere. I hope this is helpful.

GJP

The list I mentioned sometime back,is a listing of the different post offices, not railway runs as I first thought. Sorry for any confusion.

I won it in a batch of paper collectibles.

Chimo

Bujutsu

Here is an interesting link from 10 years or so back that starts as an argument as to whether these stamps are Cinderellas. Near the bottom is some interesting info that says both the PO and the railway sold both types of stamps. So it appears that these were parallel cooperating services with some overlap.

https://alphabetilately.org/TOC/RAILWAY-MAIL.html

I know they can't be cinderellas because I don't collect cinderellas but I am FASCINATED by these!

I know they CAN'T be cinderellas too, because they are listed in the Scott catalog...............and Scott is never wrong