One of the age-old problems faced by journalists, and even more so by news photographers before the advent of instant electronic communication, was how to get the story or picture back to the office in time to meet the edition deadline. The coming of the railways proved a great help, not only for the journalists but also for distributing the papers throughout the country. Railway companies printed their own stamps, primarily for transporting newspapers but also used by freelance photographers and news agencies as the fastest way of getting their pictures to London and other publishing centres.
I was based in Derby for a few years and used the stamps when sending packets to London, 125 miles away, by regular passenger services. Wholesale newspaper distribution by rail continued to grow, and by the early 1970s there were about 60 dedicated newspaper trains but these were discontinued in later years when economic considerations and trade union practices forced a change to road haulage. The system is only of academic interest now that news photographs are so easily delivered by e-mail.
The stamps shown here are from my own collection, rescued from the waste paper bin at The Times. These examples date from the introduction of decimal currency as can be seen by the new values overprinted on older issues.
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