Estação Júlio Prestes, Brazil

An official card from 2013.

BR-254435

This is the Júlio Prestes Station, a historic railroad station building in São Paulo in Brazil. In addition to commuter rail service, Júlio Prestes Station is also a cultural arts center, with a performance space and administrative offices for state-run arts programs.
The remodeled structure, originally built in 1938, has been on the state register of protected buildings since 8 July 1999.
 The train station is named in honor of the São Paulo governor (1927–1930) and Brazilian president-elect (1930), Júlio Prestes.
(There is also a Brazilian poet with the same name and initially I thought the station was named after him. Obviously I was wrong).

If there is a stamp you quite often see from Brazil, is the trumpet one on the left (along with a few other Brazilian stamps). Issued in 2002 in a set of 5 Instrument stamps.
The other one is from 2012, commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Federal University of Paraná

Liège-Guillemins, Belgium

a great surprise I received recently from a Dutch friend who has been kinda spoiling me :D

one of the things he sent me is this great card from Belgium, showing the Liège-Guillemins train station in the town of Liège...looks really cyberish!
It is one of the most important hubs in the country and is one of the 3 Belgian stations on the high-speed rail network, used by 15,000 people every day.

This new station was designed by Santiago Calatrava (heeey, this guy and I share a birthday!!!) and was officially opened on 18 September 2009 with a show by Franco Dragone. The new station is made of steel, glass and white concrete and includes a monumental arch, 160 metres long and 32 metres high. It has 9 tracks and 5 platforms.

a nice self-adhesive butterfly issued in 2012 in a set of two stamps.

Thanks a bunch Sietse! I actually like this whole trip you've taken ;-)

St. Pancras International, England

one more card for today and it is another train-related one...and the view is just stunning! One of the most gorgeous train station cards I have ever seen or received!

I am so thankful to Mary for choosing to send me this one for the Choose a Country RR! It is just soo so gorgeous!
It shows the St. Pancras Station, which was originally built in Victorian times and opened in 1868. It escaped demolition in the 1960's and has been redeveloped into the Eurostar-London Terminals (Re-opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on 6 November 2007)

a number of Queen stamps that I wont bother getting into, and a lovely one showing Tyne Bridge issued in 2012, as part of that stunning (and way too expensive) A-Z issue.

that would be all for today. Short but sweet (I hope :))

Stay well!

Strasburg Rail Road, USA

a great train card I received from Laura...the blue tone in the background against the green and the black is why it is so extra appealing to me.

the back of the card says: Strasburg Rail Road, Route 741. Daily runs to Paradise include a stop at Groff's Grove where passengers may enjoy a quiet picnic......catching a later train to complete their trip.
some postcards are really generous with information, no? :)

The website of the Strasburg's Rail Road says it was founded in 1832 and the earliest timetable found to date indicates Strasburg trains were scheduled as of December 1851.
With its ups and downhills over the years, today the Strasburg Rail Road is one of Lancaster County's most popular tourist attractions - and recognized as one of America's most significant examples of early 20th century railroading

always pleased to see some different stamps on my US postcards....the one on the right is from 2001 and shows the McKinley mountain, while the balloon stamp is from a booklet pair from 1991...nice and colourful

Mariefred, Sweden

ok, one more train card for today...sorry :)

this one came as a surprise by dear Susan who visited Sweden this summer.

The card shows the train station in Marifred, and the focus here is the Lessebo, a Mallet locally built in 1891 following the design of the original Mallets built by Decauville for the Great Exhibition in Paris in 1889, whose system had a major influence on the development of Sweden’s 600mm gauge railways. Engines of this design were used around the Eiffel Tower during the Paris exhibition of 1889. By the early years of the twentieth century the shortcomings of the design had become apparent and most of them were replaced by more modern machines built in the country. “Lessebo” led a charmed life, continuing to serve the Kosta Lessebo Järnväg (on the card), its original railway, until the line closed in 1948

the stamp is from a self-adhesive booklet of 5 stamps issued this year, representing Industrial Environments.

thank you sooo much Susi for the lovely card and for thinking of me in the first place!

until next time, and more great cards :)

Germany

Here is one FANTASTIC official card I received!

DE-808533

I cant tell at which city this photo has been taken, but my wild guess is that this station is in Frankfurt.
This is a Deutsche Bahn train, and just look at how lovely it is....so smooth and shiny...I can only imagine how cosy it is on the inside. Even though I still prefer the old classic trains, I just cant say 'no' to these either :) They are irresistible!
Btw, speaking of officials....it's been more than 24 hours that the main site is down...probably the longest time in my entire postcrossing history, and doesnt seem it will be back any time soon...and all this is Amazon's fault! Just type 'Amazon' on google news, and you'll get more details about it. I really hope it will be back soon, coz I have cards to register...and im wondering if some of mine are waiting to be registered as well...I miss the 'hurray' emails....

and apart from the boring yellow flower, this card also came with a great train stamp! Issued in 2010 to commemorate the 175 years of railways in Germany. Sometimes it is hard for me to grasp that trains have been around for almost 200 years. 

Denver, USA

My last card for today comes as a surprise from a friend who visited USA earlier this year. He tries to send me a postcard whenever he travels somewhere, but for some reason, just two have made their way to my mailbox so far.....

And he picked such a great one! A train station!!!!
Denver's first train station was constructed in 1868 to serve the new Denver Pacific Railway, which connected Denver to the main transcontinental line at Cheyenne, Wyoming. By 1875, there were four different railroad stations, making passenger transfers between different railroad lines inconvenient. To remedy this issue, the Union Pacific Railroad proposed creating one central "Union Station" to combine the various operations. In February 1880, the owners of the four lines agreed to build a station at 17th and Wynkoop Streets and the station opened in May 1881.
During its heyday, the station was served by 80 daily trains operated by six different railroads; however, most of this was terminated at the time of the formation of Amtrak, which has since operated only one train daily between Chicago and the Bay Area, routed through Denver.
Current passenger services include:
- Amtrak's California Zephyr
- C Line and E Line light rail routes.
The station also serves the once a year Cheyenne Frontier Days Train, usually pulled by Union Pacific's steam locomotive 844, the last steam locomotive built for the UP. The train runs between Union Station and Cheyenne, Wyoming for the Frontier Days Rodeo event.

and a rather different US stamp compared to the ones I usually see on my postcards/letters. It was issued in 2010 and is part of 4 Holiday Evergreens (Forever) special stamps.

Thank you all for reading, for the postcards and see you soon hopefully :)