Product Description
18 June 2013 - Classic Locomotives of Northern Ireland.
Following on from the Great British Railways, issued 19 August 2010, and the England and Scotland miniature sheets and stamp booklets, this is the third of a series of Miniature Sheets that illustrates steam locomotives in use in each of the home countries.
A self-adhesive booklet issued at the same time contains 4 x 1st class red definitives coded M13L MCIL and 2 x 1st class Ulster Transport Authority W Class stamps.
Caption from Royal Mail:
1st Class – Ulster Transport Authority (UTA) W Class No. 103: The W Class locomotive Thomas Somerset pulls an up-express through County Donegal in 1950*
* The designs and captions were provided by Royal Mail and brought much critical discussion on our blog entry for this issue. The general conclusion is that the train on the 1st class stamp "is not shown in County Donegal but emerging from one of the tunnels between Downhill and Castlerock, County Londonderry. The land rising in the distance, across the sea, is part of Inishowen, County Donegal." One writer suggested that "Royal Mail have made the classic geographical error and confused Northern Ireland (6 counties) with the Province of Ulster (9 counties - Donegal being one of the extra 3)." In discussion about whether the line actually crossed the border, John points out "Perhaps we shouldn't say that the railway crossed the border but rather the border crossed the railway (it was there first)."
This is a single special stamp from the booklet,
