Stamp Story. No. 15 The Wrong Engine

Press, Volume C, Issue 29466, 18 March 1961, Page 7

Stamp Story. No. 15 The Wrong Engine

IBy KEN ANTHONY)

HOW did the picture of a British railway locomotive, of the type that hauled the Great Northern expresses about the turn of the century, come to appear on the stamps of Uruguay—when engines like this were never used there?

It is a mystery which has intrigued a reader who has asked for information about this curious design, first issued in 1895 and repeated in the 1897 and 1899 issues. The English firm which printed the stamps was asked to supply a complete series with one value showing a modern locomotive. With nothing else to go on, they

did not go to the trouble of finding out what kind of engine Uruguay was then using. They simply looked round for the first suitable drawing of a locomotive they could find.

The firm also happened to ! be printers to the Great Northern Railway, whose printed matter included a drawing of their latest locomotive. What more natural than to design a stamp for Uruguay round this readily-available drawing, adding a certain Latin-American touch by embellishing the locomotive with a cow-catcher and large headlamp typical of the period? The Uruguay Post Office, evidently no stickler for accuracy, accepted the design, little realising that in later years it would form the basis for a rumour that one of the Great Northern locomotives was bought by the Uruguayan railways (which were originally British-owned > and shipped out to South America. But there appears to be no truth at all in this story. A collector of my acquaintance settled the point by writing both to Uruguay Railways and to the Chief Engineer of British Railways at Doncaster (home of the old Great Northern locomotive works*. Neither could find any trace in their records of a transaction of this kind.—(Central Press Features. All Rights Reserved.)