For this second book in the Transport Philately series on public transport issues featured on postage stamps, once again the author will combine two of his life-long hobbies as he looks at railways around the world on standard gauge tracks that encompasses the majority of the western worlds major railway arteries. The book will also illustrate railways on other, similar gauges of track where they constitute a countrys major arteries, but it is not an exhaustive survey encompassing every country and every issue for that one needs to refer to major catalogue issues by such well-known authorities as Stanley Gibbons Plc. There have been many and varied reasons why postal authorities have issued stamps featuring railway subjects, varying from major anniversaries to national pride, the latter often from the former Eastern-bloc countries but that is not by all means. The Royal Mail in the UK has certainly not ignored railways, especially in later years, and the author will visit probably more of his native country's stamps than most other countries, but hes biased. The author often looks in his albums to try to understand why a particular country will sometimes be represented by bulging sections, whilst others are represented by but one or two stamp. And so, the book follows the story around the world in roughly an eastern journey, learning about some of the national histories on the way and admiring the attentions of some extremely accomplished artists that mean philatelists and rail-lovers alike can enjoy many beautiful miniature works of art.

In this, the fourth edition of the Transport Philately series the author looks at the treatment of transport using roads rather than rail or air. There have been some particularly attractive and colourful issues of stamps over the years ranging from a trio of beautifully presented illustrations of Israel's early buses to the well-known issue of double-deck buses produced by the Royal Mail in 2001, and who incidentally have seen the commercial opportunity by accompanying many issues with other paraphernalia, including a gentleman's tie featuring many of the bus illustrations. A well-known colleague in the Public Transport world still wears his! Buses certainly are not as popular in the world of stamps as possibly aviation or wild-life, and trolleybuses even less so but the author has succeeded in finding a few, some of which are illustrated. Tramways, on the other hand, are a blessing to any collector with selections many and varied, some featuring trams from the beginning of the 20th century for their heritage interest to others providing an outlet of national or local pride at the inauguration of today's systems in developed and developing countries across the world. Never a year goes by without a new issue appearing somewhere in the world and the author likes to keep an eye on several sources of information including regular publications from the renowned Stanley Gibbons organisation, the fount of all knowledge concerning philately, as well as other equally valuable contemporary publishers. Then there are regular stamp fairs held throughout the UK and the world where dealers compete for your business, and at some of the bigger occasions - the postal authorities themselves. On your computer are the various internet sites and auction platforms where there can often be some real surprises and bargains to be found.

The author has combined his two greatest interests: Transport and Stamp Collecting and brought them together in this series of books looking at the way postage stamps have led him to increase his knowledge of our world via his interest in all forms of transport world-wide. Philately (the collecting of stamps) itself is a fascinating hobby looking at the development of postal services in all its forms, designs of stamps that have evolved the Victorian Penny-Black to today's creations, often artistic but dependant more and more on photography with greater or lesser degrees of digital manipulation. In his quest he has covered many unusual places that have only become more accessible with the advent of cheap air travel but has still found it necessary to use his own contacts, library of related books and more recently the internet to research his subject. Like all books in this series, they been laid out as global tour starting naturally in the UK and then travelling in an easterly direction through every continent - without, it should be added, crossing the International Date Line! Readers will not find every country included but a differing selection in each volume.