STEAM locomotives stored at Barry Rail Centre were the focus of attention for the launch of Royal Mail’s stamp trip back to the golden age of railway travel – with a little help from local posties Ian Weavers and Chris Cummings.

Royal Mail’s Great British Railways stamps, issued this month, feature six of the big classic locos used by the Big Four railway companies and mark the 50th anniversary of the building of the last UK steam locomotive, British Rail’s Evening Star.

The Barry venue, used for the stamp launch in South Wales, is home to an engine similar to the Evening Star BR Class 9F 1st Class stamp – one of several awaiting restoration in the Vale of Glamorgan storage yard.

A spokesman from Cambrian Transport, the company responsible for the restoration project, said: "These are wonderful stamps looking back at the golden age of steam railways.

"We have plans afoot to restore some of the old engines stored in the Barry yard and of course we are still going to be running the Santa Steam Special at Christmas from Barry Island."

By the end of the 19th century, numerous private railway companies competed fiercely across the British Isles, but by 1923, with profits waning due to the increasing competition from cars, buses and lorries, over 120 private railway companies were merged into the Big Four.

These comprised of the London, Midland & Scottish (including the Northern Counties Committee (NCC) in Northern Ireland), the London & North Eastern, the Great Western – which celebrates its 175th anniversary this year - and the Southern Railways.

After the Second World War, the Big Four became British Railways (BR) in 1948, and in March 1960, Evening Star brought to an end over 130 years of steam-locomotive building for Britain’s mainline railways, leaving Swindon Works in a blaze of publicity in 1960.

Philip Parker, Head of Stamp Strategy for Royal Mail, said: "The association of steam and stamps goes right back to the 1840s where the introduction of the Penny Post coincided with the arrival of The Steam Age.

"For this issue we have selected six of the classic locomotives used by the Big Four railway companies, and also mark the 50th anniversary of the Evening Star, the last of the British-built locomotives."