Orient Express Train: Romanian cover and maximum cards with joint-issue stamps Romania-Austria

Thank you, my dear friend Teodor from Romania!  Multzumesc! :)

Salzburg (Austria) Railway Station

Sinaia (Romania) Railway Station - read the placard on the train car: Venice - Simplon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Orient-express_histoire.png

"The Orient Express was the name of a long-distance passenger train service originally operated by the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. It ran from 1883 to 2009 and is not to be confused with the Venice-Simplon Orient Express train service, which continues to run.

The route and rolling stock of the Orient Express changed many times. Several routes in the past concurrently used the Orient Express name, or slight variants thereof. Although the original Orient Express was simply a normal international railway service, the name has become synonymous with intrigue and luxury travel. The two city names most prominently associated with the Orient Express are Paris and Istanbul, the original endpoints of the timetabled service.

In 1977, the Orient Express stopped serving Istanbul. Its immediate successor, a through overnight service from Paris to Vienna, ran for the very last time from Paris on Friday, June 8, 2007. After this, the route, still called the "Orient Express", was shortened to start fromStrasbourg instead,^[1] occasioned by the inauguration of the LGV Est which affords much faster travel times from Paris to Strasbourg. The new curtailed service left Strasbourg at 22.20 daily, shortly after the arrival of a TGV from Paris, and was attached at Karlsruhe to the overnight sleeper service from Amsterdam to Vienna.

On 14 December 2009, the Orient Express ceased to operate and the route disappeared from European railway timetables, reportedly a "victim of high-speed trains and cut-rate airlines".^[2]The Venice-Simplon Orient Express train, a private venture using original carriages from the 1920s and 30s, continues to run from London to Venice and to other destinations in Europe, including the original route from Paris to Istanbul.^[3]"

^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orient_Express}

Trains on stamps, Part 4: Stamps from USSR, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Maldives, Italy, German Democratic Republic, Federal Republic of Germany, Poland, Laos, Bhutan and Kampuchea/Cambodia.

Of all these countries represented on this stock book page, who shows the most modern trains?

Kampuchea, of course. 

Isn't Kampuchea the premier country for railway technology?

And Bhutan, a close second? 

:)

Can you spot the tramway, on this page?

Trains on stamps, Part 3: stamps from Romania, Dahomey, Guinea-Bissau...and Burkina Faso, too!

Dahomey is now Benin.

Guinea-Bissau: not Guinea, not Equatorial Guinea, not Papua-New Guinea.

Burkina Faso, the country formerly known as Upper Volta.

Romania - roughly a third of it... is a region called Transylvania. :)

That concludes our brief geo-history moment, boys and girls. :)

Trains on stamps, Part 2: SUPERB 6-stamp series + souvenir sheet, from Liberia!

This is one of my most favorite stamp series from my collection!

You don't have to be a train fan(atic) to like this. :)

It's more than "some trains on stamps" - it's also a glimpse into other cultures, other historical periods, looking at those people and their dresses.

This excellently-drawn and designed stamps series was probably NOT manufactured by "the good, crafty people" of Liberia.

Like so many other stamps, they were probably manufactured in another country, wherever the philatelic agent/contractor saw fit to do it.

If you know the truth about it, tell us! :)

Trains on stamps, Part 1: Stamps from Cuba, and one from Nicaragua. From my Showcase Collection (not Specialized Collection)

For me, the best way to enjoy collecting stamps (for educational purposes, not as a financial investment), is by creating a Showcase Collection: at least one stamp (simple, or on cover, or maximum card, etc.) from EVERY subject, theme, topic that interests me or others.

Why a Showcase Collection? 

"For the love of the game"...to promote this hobby - philately. Promoting online and offline.

I also have Specialized Collections, such as "Wild mammals on maximum cards".

For example, I'm not interested in yachting, but I'll keep at least one such stamp, for educational/illustrative purposes.

I'm not saying that I BUY all those stamps: some come free (not "for free" - pleonasm) from various sources.

So I am not spending much, even for those that I buy.

In fact, nowadays I mainly buy maximum cards - on the rare occasions when I buy anything.

Many of the stamps from my Showcase Collection are inexpensive CTOs (cancelled-to-order, valuing at about 25% of a mint stamp), from the days of my youth in Romania.

I am mildly interested in trains on stamps, but I kept a few of those that crossed my path.

In the above image from my stock book of stamps, notice a "stamps on stamps" series. In the lower left corner, there's a depiction of a stamp from the series exemplified by a stamp from that original series.

See that?

Maximum card: train accident

See what happens when you lose your "train of thought"?

Guess where did this accident happen?

Answer: check the backside of the postcard. Says Montmartre.

Here's an idea that I love: "Many of our successes and failures in life come from our knowing (or not knowing, respectively) WHEN to STOP and WHEN to CONTINUE".

:)