The Rail Philatelist October 1997 Newsletter

Dear Fellow Rail Philatelist:

Now that I have the alphabetical stamp lists synchronized between the newsletter and my web page, my web master has added a new wrinkle. We have added a shopping basket feature to the "New Issues", "Monthly Specials", and "A-B-C-D-E-F" lists (more to come) that allows you to, first, pick up a shopping basket, then when you click on the price of any item in the list it is automatically added to your shopping basket. When you have completed your shopping, the menu leads you thru all the ordering info including a secure double-blind credit card entry if you choose to go that way. Unfortunately, you have to have an up-to-date Java script Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer browser (Version 3.0 or greater) to use it - if the shopping basket icon doesn't appear at the top center of the list page, your browser isn't compatible with this new feature (Neither my current AOL or ATT Worldnet are at present.). Thanks to Bill Senkus for being the first to send in an order using the new system. Seemed to work fine although he did have a couple constructive suggestions. Those of you who can, give it a try and let me know what you think. Happy shopping!

WHAT A TRIP! PART III: And I thought I had great train trips in Europe - listen to this from new issue customer Richard Starchuk "... had a great time in France and Poland riding on the trains. Took lots of pics and vids. In Poland I rented a narrow gauge train for the day (I even got to drive the loco) for 350 zloty (about $120 US) just myself and Joanne's relatives in the coaches. Except we had to supply the beer and picnic food for the crew as well as the family." Sounds like a great deal even at that! He later wrote "There are lots of different narrow gauge railroads in Poland, both steam and diesel, and can be rented through the Polish National Railway (PKP)." Thanks for the added info!

I ASKED, YOU ANSWERED: (1) Even before the ink was dry on my "BEEN THERE, DONE THAT! COLLECTION" comments in August, Theron Smith e-mailed me to say "Have made 'been there, done that' references in my collection including such things as pic of me on loco in front of sugar mill in Antigua, pics of bridge over Yangzte from our room in hotel at Wuhan, reference to Palast Hotel in East Berlin near scene in NICARAGUA C1154 & much etc." Sounds like a great way to personalize your collection. What have the rest of you done? (2) Don Kesler reports that "ALBUM PRO" works well for cover pages too. Dan Ringo and Doug Sprott also report great success with "ALBUM PRO". Maybe the slogan should be "ALBUM PRO - the way to go!"

LITERATURE: The library is bulging this month with three very useful additions:

(1) RAILWAY RELATED LOCAL OVERPRINTS OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF INDEPENDENT STATES by William R. Chappell. Bill (President of CJRRU) has tackled a monumental task in trying to document all the overprints for the former Russian republics and he has created an extremely useful "unpublished work in progress" as he calls it. This is a "must have" if you collect these "cinderellas". Available for $10.00 from Bill at 4735 W. Broadway #29, Hawthorne, CA 90250

(2) DER EISENBAHN-MOTIV-SAMMLER, 32 pages of railway philatelic news with lots of pictures - new issues, pictorial cancels, postcards,etc - outstanding if you read a little German. Thanks Horst!

(3) RAILWAY THEMATIC STAMPS OF AFRICA 1997 Edition was worth the wait! This 190-page well illustrated catalog contains all the railway stamps of Africa in alphabetical and chronological country order. Two maps of the continent listing no longer existing and still existing countries are included. A catalog number concordance is included for Scott, Stanley Gibbons, Yvert & Tellier and Michel. The catalog doesn't include prices, perforation varieties, cableways or cranes on rails, nor railway parcel stamps but I did notice several items that I hadn't realized were rail-related. Price is US $35.00 from the author, Albert Borgstein, P.O.Box 23168, Gezina 0031 South Africa.

STAMP OF THE MONTH: This is the fourth in what appears to be a continuing series of Slovenian steam locomotives. Scott #291 celebrates the140th anniversary of the opening of the Ljubljana -Trieste railway line, the last phase in the construction of the railroad link between Vienna and the

Austro-Hungarian Empire's main seaport. Construction began on the 577 kilometer Southern State Railway in 1839. Loco 03-002, pictured, was built in 1914 in the Viennese locomotive factory in Floridsdorf and was in use until 1968, when, as the first of her class, she was put under the protection of the Slovene Railway Museum (location?). Other stamps in the series are Scott #203, Loco #5722 - Ljubljana-Novo Mesto Railway centenary; Scott #233, Loco KRB 37, Podnart - 125th Ann. Ljubljana - Jesenice Line; & Scott # 243, Loco "Aussee", 150th Ann. Graz - Celje Line.

PACIFIC 97 PART II: Now that the word is out about the huge Pacific 97 financial deficit and other problems, I guess I can mention two of my less favorable memories of an otherwise great show. (1) Tuesday, May 27.After our attempt to go directly to the Moscone Center loading dock failed,Joe and I drove thru some of the seamier parts of San Francisco to the Moscone Center marshaling yard where we had to tell them the number of boxes to be unloaded and the total weight. I made a guess at 50 boxes and 600 lbs, not realizing that 600 was the magic number buried deep in some obscure section of the show contract I had never seen. Then we were given a number and authorization to go back to the Moscone Center to unload. When I unloaded at the show loading dock, the Freeman Decorating supervisor told me that we had much more than the 600 lbs indicated on our form. He said we had at least 1000 lbs. I recognized the shakedown and compromised by saying "I don't really think so but let's call it 800 and get the stuff to the booth." He wrote 800 on the form , I signed it and off the stuff went to the booth. Now it turns out they were trying to charge us for excess weight - anything over 600 lbs. Pat Dowling (the booth holder) did a comprehensive box count and weight analysis. He came up with 43 boxes weighing about 509 lbs so my 50 box, 600 lb estimate at the marshaling yard wasn't too far off. It took two days of haggling with the Pacific 97 Gestapo to convince them that we didn't have any extra weight and that we didn't owe them extra money - they were trying to bleed money out of every turnip they could find. Booth holders like Subway Stamps with all their heavy supplies really had a problem - not sure how those were finally resolved. And there were problems with wrong counters and chairs, etc. It was a hectic and unpleasant couple days before the show finally opened, and then, as if by magic, everything went just fine. (2) The Moscone Center is a great venue for a stamp show but the surrounding neighborhoods are over-populated with derelicts, beggars and worse so you have to watch where you walk (and when!). Saw the same people at the same locations begging every day of the show, almost as if they had a franchise for that particular location! I went to mass at St. Patrick's - beautiful downtown church (about a block from the Moscone Center) but the main stained glass window of St. Patrick had 23 holes in it from stones (or bullets?) - some of the other saints had holes in them too-sure makes San Francisco look bad.

RAIL THOUGHT OF THE MONTH: "And I thought the Sierra Club was a special interest group for a Northern California Short Line Railroad." Hope to see all of you in the EAST! Have a great month!

AL PETERSON

OCT 11-12 GREAT AMERICAN TRAIN SHOW RALEIGH CIVIC & CONVENTION CENTER RALEIGH, NC

THE RAIL PHILATELIST

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