The Norwegian postal service is celebrating the Bergen Line’s 100 year anniversary with an issue of stamps with themes from different sections of the line, plus a valuable album garnished with stamps, postcards and historical articles.
Aimed at the tourist market
The stamps with themes from the Bergen Line are aimed at the tourist market. The summer theme has been taken from the area around Stanghelle station, while the winter theme shows the train on its way out of the tunnel at Finse.
The Norwegian postal service is also celebrating the Bergen Line’s 100 year anniversary by creating two postcards. One of the postcards is a photograph of the first train at Gulsvik station when the line opened. The other train shows a photograph of a rotary snow plough and crew.
Deutsche Post, the German postal service, is also celebrating the anniversary of the line
The Bergen Line has a legendary status abroad and is permanently on the list of the world’s most beautiful railways. Also, foreign postal services want to join in the celebrations, too.
‘Deutsche Post is joining us on the four day anniversary trip between Oslo and Bergen from 4th – 7th June. They intend to make a stamp for each day of the anniversary trip and will work together with us in the mail van throughout the whole trip,’ explains Arnfinn Skåle.
Mail van work was very popular
Mail has been conveyed on the Bergen Line for a total of 83 years, from 1883 until 31st December 1991. ‘It was a popular job. Even though the mail van was a confined and bumpy place in which to work, the jobs were highly sought after. Postal workers were very busy sorting the mail while the train was in motion but with breaks between journeys, time off and higher wages, it was an attractive job,’ recounts Arnfinn Skåle of the Norwegian postal service.
Norwegian trains on foreign stamps
Stamps with railway themes are a separate genre that is collected throughout the world. However, there are several genres. The Anniversary book explains that within Norvegiana – the genre that deals with Norwegian subjects appearing on stamps that have been issued in other countries – you will find Norwegian trains depicted on stamps issued in Sweden, Bhutan and Burkina Faso, among other places.
The circle is completed
At the end of the 19th century and during the early part of the 20th century, the growth of railway and mail services was often tied closely together. When a new stretch of railway line was opened the mail service was, as a rule, also developed along the new line. Eventually the road network was expanded and the trains were ousted by road transport.
Recently, the Norwegian postal service signed an agreement with CargoNet. The new agreement means that mail will no longer travel by lorry between Oslo and Bergen. From now on, all mail that used to be conveyed by road will now be conveyed by train between these two cities.
