Trains and railways have always been a popular topic for stamp collectors. Recently issued by Malaysia is this stamp set, called Trains in Sabah, featuring a Hitachi diesel locomotive (60 sen), as well as a railbus (70 sen) and a diesel multiple unit (80 sen).
But pride of place goes to Vulcan steam locomotive, with a value of 5 RM(Ringgit). Operated by the Sabah State Railway, the only railway operator in Borneo. Sabah is Malaysia’s easternmost state, one of two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo.
The network managed by Sabah State Railway consists of a single 134km line from Tanjung Aru, near Kota Kinabalu, to Tenom in what is known as the Interior Division.
Formerly known as North Borneo Railway, construction of the network began in 1896 under supervision of British engineer Arthur J. West.
According to Pos Malaysia’s philately unit head, Diyana Lean Abdullah, the Sabah train collection has two special features that are of interest to collectors.
The first is the pair of elliptical perforationss on the miniature sheet, and the second is the presence of a tab in the centre of the 18-stamp sheets (see above) that shows illustrations of the Sabah train stations.
Pos Malaysia has featured trains on its stamps before, the stamps below celebrated in 1985 the 100th anniversary of Malayan railway.
And in 2010 to mark 125 years of Malayan railway.
