Designs commemorate history of the steam locomotive

Royal Mail next month will issue six special stamps recalling the birth and evolution of the steam locomotive that appeared in Britain just prior to the debut of the world's first postage stamp, the Penny Black.
The stamps are peculiar in format, measuring nearly 2 1/2 inches horizontally and about 1 inch vertically. The extra-wide breathing room allows the designs to include the classic engines pulling coaches amid scenic landscape and puffing smoke.
Five of the six stamps, which will be issued Jan. 13, picture locomotives originally owned and operated by the Big Four rail companies: the Great Western Railway; the London, Midland and Scottish Railway; the London and North Eastern Railway; and the Southern. The lines operated independently until they were nationalized into British Railways in 1948.
Stamp designs
The 20-pence stamp features the Dolgoch, a four-wheeler said to be the first locomotive to pull a passenger train on a railway. The design shows an engine of the early 1950s on the narrow-gauge Talyllyn Railway, an industrial line built to move slate from the quarries to the main line in North Wales.
A Caledonian Railway tank locomotive, on the 28-pence stamp, is depicted pulling carriages (as coaches are called in Europe) along the shoreline of the Forth Estuary near Edinburgh, Scotland.
The E class stamp, equivalent to 28 pence for mailing within the European Union, reproduces a locomotive of the 1950s of the Great Central Railway pulling a freight train. The 42-pence stamp features a Bradley Manor class locomotive of the Great Western Railway pulling carriages approaching Victoria Bridge over the River Severn near Leeds, north-central England.
A Southern Railway locomotive of the 1950s and 1960s, 47 pence, pulls Pullman cars in East Sussex, while the 68-pence stamp shows a British Railway standard class locomotive of the 1950s leaving Haworth Station, near the home of the Bronte literary sisters, in the north of England.
History
The steam locomotive was a refined byproduct of the ordinary steam engine. It was in 1802 that Richard Trevethick (1771-1833) built a high-pressure engine that he later adapted into a railway locomotive at Coalbrookdale in 1803 but to no avail. He could not attract investors.
In 1814, George Stephenson (1781-1848) built his first locomotive, obtained financing and launched the first commercial railroad in 1825.
Other railways blossomed in England -- as many as 400 authorized by Parliament in 1844 to 1846.
The Penny Black debuted in 1840 as the first postage stamp that pre-paid the cost of a letter; previously, the recipient was required to pay the fee. The one-penny stamp of black on white background featured a cameo of Queen Victoria, the reigning monarch.
Information on the stamps is available at www.royalmail.com.
Knight Ridder Tribune