Description

Se-tenant pair of 1983 25p definitives from the Great Central Railway, one depicting the GCR 4-4-0 No.506 Butler-Henderson and the other the LNER 4-6-0 No.1306 Mayflower.

U/M / Unmounted Mint / MNH / Mint Never Hinged.

About the Great Central Railway

Occupying an eight-mile stretch of the former Great Central Main Line between Loughborough and Leicester, the Great Central Railway was set up by volunteers in 1969 following the end of British Railways operations on the line. The first passenger train ran in 1973, and today the GCR remains the UK's only double-track, mainline heritage railway.

The history of modern railway letter stamps goes back to 1957, when the Talyllyn Railway became the first UK railway to produce such issues. These labels were popular as souvenirs for the railway’s visitors, but also performed a postal function, paying for the carriage of mail via the railway’s own letter delivery service. Many other preserved railways followed suit with their own issues, including the Great Central Railway, which produced just two issues in 1982 and 1983. Frank Wilson's excellent Railway Letter Stamps catalogue suggests that although the GCR transported letters and postcards at this time, it had never actually signed the Post Office agreement that would make such a service official.

As the Railway Philatelic Group explains, subsequent changes to the agreement between the Royal Mail, British Rail and independent railways – most recently in 1998 – has seen the number of railways offering a letter service dwindle, and, as of 2024, only the Talyllyn Railway, Ffestiniog Railway and Nene Valley Railway are understood to still be running a railway letter service.

For details of all Great Central Railway issues, see the excellent Philatelic Compendium website.