The many trains arriving on 19 February at Platform 1 are from Hornby.

2017 Meccano stamp

This set is all about Hornby Model Railways, perhaps hitching up to last year's Railway 200 celebration of the bicentenary of real railways.  

Odd then, that the set marks the 125th anniversary of the company founded by Frank Hornby in 1901, "Hornby Hobbies", to sell his Meccano construction toy. According to Wikipedia until 1907 the company produced under the name of Mechanics made easy which is what Meccano was doing.

The first clockwork train was not produced until 1920.  but I suppose trains on stamps have more appeal than construction models?

From Royal Mail 

The clockwork trains were followed by electric models and the iconic Hornby Dublo range in 1938. 

These innovations transformed model railways into a cherished pastime, inspiring creativity and technical skills across generations. 

Hornby’s story reflects Britain’s engineering heritage and evolving social trends—from childhood play to adult collecting and nostalgia. Despite wartime interruptions and industry challenges, Hornby adapted with new technologies, from realistic detailing to digital control systems, ensuring its continued relevance. Today, Hornby remains a leading name in model railways, celebrated for craftsmanship and authenticity. 

This stamp issue honours a brand that has entertained millions, preserved the romance of rail travel, and become a cultural icon of British design and imagination. 

The stamps 

Set of 8 x 1st class stamps honouring the Hornby brand name issued 19 February 2026.

The set consists if eight 1st Class stamps
GNR No.1 Locomotive (1920) – The original clockwork classic that started it all.
BR 4MT Tank Locomotive (1954) – A post-war favourite from the Hornby Dublo era.
InterCity 125 High Speed Train (1977) – A symbol of speed and innovation.
Bournemouth Belle Pullman Cars (2009) – Luxury in miniature detail.
Princess Elizabeth, LMS (1937) – A majestic pre- war express engine.
AL1 Electric Locomotive (1963) – Capturing the modernisation of British Railways.
Merchant Navy Class (2000) – Heralding Hornby’s new era of authenticity.
‘Hush-Hush’ Experimental Locomotive (2021) – A tribute to engineering ambition.

The Miniature Sheet consists of four 1st class stamps

Miniature Sheet of 4 x 1st class stamps honouring the Hornby brand name issued 19 February 2026.

Hornby Book of Trains – A tribute to the early catalogues that inspired generations of young enthusiasts.
Hornby Dublo Electric Trains – Showcasing the revolutionary 1930s range that brought realism to miniature railways.
Tri-ang Railways Era – Capturing the bold advertising and colourful packaging of the 1960s and 70s.
Modern Classics – Featuring InterCity branding and contemporary designs that reflect Hornby’s evolution 

Technical details and acknowledgements

The 41 x 30 mm gummed stamps were printed by Cartor Security Printers in litho in sheets of 60 in se-tenant pairs, perf 14½x14.  The 192 x 74 mm miniature sheet contains stamps 60 x 30 mm perf 14½.

2017 Hornby Dublo stamp

Designed by The Chase.  HORNBY®, Hornby Railways, Tri-ang Hornby, Tri-ang, Hornby Dublo and Minic are Registered Trade Marks of Hornby Hobbies Ltd, and are used under licence by Royal Mail Group Ltd; images © Hornby Hobbies Limited, except image of two boys on the Dublo stamp: detail from Hornby Dublo box label © M&N/Alamy Stock Photo.

Products available

Set of 8 stamps, miniature sheet, presentation pack, first day covers (2), press sheet of 10 miniature sheets, (Inter-City 125) medal cover, stamp set and miniature sheet in one frame.

So, with yet another branded stamp issue, will Hornby derail the hobby or just some collectors? 

 

---

booster-t in the comments wanted to post a photo of his TT-gauge Triang - here it is!

TT-gauge Triang 35028 (Southern Region if my memory serves?)

---

Lord of The Rings - again but different - 20 March 2026

The 2004 Royal Mail issue related to the Lord of the Rings marked the 50th anniversary of the publication of the first books in the series. Consequently they focussed on the books and showed the author'sdrawings illustrating locations in the books.  This set, incidentally, was one of many consisting of 10 x 1st class.

2004 set of 10 x 1st class Lord of the Rings stamps.

Now, it's 25 years since The Fellowshop of the Ring hit a screen near you bringing New Zealand director Peter Jackson to our notice - not his first film, but the series which has featured most on stamps, notably those of New Zealand. 

Selection of New Zealand Lord of the Rings stamps depicting Frodo, Gandalf, Aragon and Legolas.

New Zealand Post has issued several sets of LOTR stamps.  How will Royal Mail's stamps compare?  Time will tell, and they will be revealed around 11 March.

(Incidentally, in each of NZ Post's LOTR issues they had six gummed stamps, the same six stamps in individual miniature sheets, the same six stamps in a single self-adhesive miniature sheet, and a self-adhesive folded booklet containing four of the lowest value, two of one other, and one each of the rest. There are also official maximum cards which had a stamp stuck to the picture side and postmarked, and also printed in black & white on the address side; the cards are thus prepaid for posting to anywhere in the world.)

---

Microprinting is back - and has been for some time.

Royal Mail has used microprinting in the past to 'hide' the year of issue in many of its special stamps - those printed in litho being more common than gravure.  But this stopped a few years ago.

But the Modern British Philatelic Circle has discovered that each litho- printed stamp in the 2025 Queen Victoria set has had a hidden micro-printed ‘2516’ (16th issue of 2025) added within the stamp.  I wasn't aware of this as I don't read all the MBPC very often, but here is a 2400 dpi scan of one of the Stranger Things miniature sheet stamps (2601).  

2601 microprint on Stranger Things miniature sheet

Gibbons Stamp Monthly later announced similar date codes have appeared since the Valour and Victory set.  

I understand this is always printed in black so some will be easier to see than others. I have found the printing on all the Concorde MS stamps, and some of the sheet stamps.  (Also six of the Hornby stamps and all of the roses; the latter have a white background making the task much easier.)

See if you can find them on the stamps already issued (starting with the Valour and Victory issue).

 

---

Slogan Postmarks for February 2026 - and other postal markings

February should start (as January ended) with the default British Heart Foundation slogan, but I have reliable information that it will change very soon to the BHF Revivr slogan similar to last year's. This will likely be interrupted by National Apprenticeship Week (NAW) which this year runs from 9-15 February, so we can expect the slogan to approximately follow those dates.  But will we get anything for St Valentine's Day?

While I have nothing yet to show you, this at least puts readers on alert for a new slogan this week, another one next week, and then a reversion to this week's the week after that.  Hopefully Sheffield Mail Centre will fall into line.

UPDATE 6 February.  By chance the first example of the Revivr slogan is from Sheffield!  Thanks LT for this one dated 03/02/2026.

British Heart Foundation RevivR slogan Sheffield Mail Centre 03/02/20226

UPDATE:

The slogan actually started on 2nd February and ran until 6th, but will return. Thanks to JE for this example from Bristol.

And here, thanks to RW is the alternative layout from Norwich, although unfortunately not clear.

British Heart Foundation RevivR slogan Norwich Mail Centre 03/02/20226 (digitally adjusted)

---

UPDATE 11 February 2026 - National Apprenticeship Week returns with a slightly different slogan.

Royal Mail supports
National
Apprenticeship Week
9 - 15 February
careers.royalmailgroup.com

In previous years the last line has had the URL of nationalapprenticshipweek.co.uk, but as you can see this year Royal Mail are promoting their own apprenticeship efforts.  JE provided this example from Bristol for 9th February (the campaign started on 7th).

National Apprenticeship Week slogan Bristol Mail Centre 09/02/2026

UPDATE 16 February.   Thanks to RS for the other layout of this slogan from Warrington Mail Centre 10th February.

National Apprenticeship Week slogan Warrington Mail Centre 10-02-2026

---

Other postmarks and postal markings, etc

1. The first example this month repeats the Apprenticeship week slogan from above.  JE sent a stack of four examples all posted by the same person in a weekly batch.  

The large number at the foot of the postmark shows the first two are consecutive with the added novelty of each using a different monarch's stamp.

"Then ... and entering proper nerd territory :-) ... the number changes from 1144202784 at 20:37:02 to 1144202840 at 20:37:09. They all come from the same person in one batch (they post out once a week), so assume all cancelled on the same machine which therefore seems to process around 8 letters per second, give or take. "  

That equates to 28,800 per hour, or approximately the 30,000 that Royal Mail laud as the capability of these machines. It's not often we get the opportunity to see this amount of detail unless we have access to the mail centre!

Four covers from one batch of posting showing consecutive numbers on two, and demonstrating the speed of processing letters through the machine.

---

St. Valentine's Day  Apprenticeship Week gets in the way of Royal Mail helping out the greetings card industry with a special slogan, but RW has sent this example of a slogan that the US Postal Service is using.  They also issue Love stamps every year (which may be something we don't want to encourage) and notecards.  

2026 USPS Love stamps and notecards

2026 USPS Love stamps slogan, used at Seattle.

---

St Marychurch Post Office - a different type of handstamp.

Thanks to JH for this image from St Marychurch Post Office, Torquay dated 5 Feb 2026.  It is unlike anything else I have seen from a sub-post office, and I suspect it might be a local production by the postmaster.

St Marychurch Post Office 05 FEB 2026 Tel: 01803 327786

Here's the Google streetview image of the post office branch, and below it from a different website, the branch's silver van complete with Post Office logo.

St Marychurch Post Office van (Geograph.co.uk)

I have some examples of what I suspect are also locally acquired rubber stamps used on certificates of posting at March, Cambridgeshire 30 years ago.  These were used alongside self-inking datestamps (SIDs).  The Parcel Post stamp looks like a conventional one, and may well be, but by the time SIDs were being introduced rectangular Parcel Post handstamps were being phased out as Horizon labels made them unnecessary.  I suspect the first and third of these were produced for applying to forms and bag labels etc, rather than for cancelling stamps.

 

 Any other examples of locally produced handstamps being used on stamps?

 

---

Remember, slogan postmarks appearing in February will be added to this post, so check here before you spend time scanning and emailing.

A reminder of what these monthly listings are for.  

For each month I record the different slogans in use, plus the default slogan that is used when there is nothing else.

For each of these I try to record only one of each of the basic two types, plus any that are reversed on square envelopes, which normally only gives three or four.  

Occasionally a slogan appears with different line spacing in the same format. 

I do not record multiple versions of the same as any of these unless I later get a much better example of one that I showed purely for the record, but which is otherwise not very clear.

The only exception to this, which doesn't seem to happen much these days, is when a slogan is used well out of time, such as the Air Ambulance Week slogan below which is from September 2024!  

I mention this only to avoid readers unnecessarily duplicating what has already been provided.

---

 

Update on the 1st Large Business Sheet - and other new products

The King Charles 1st class Large Business Sheet - missing from the original printings of business sheets and first reported here - will have an official distribution on 20 March - along with several other 'new' products which have the new font (and presumably the new crown).

Royal Mail have said that these will have a 'first day of (philatelic) availability' although some have been available in Post Offices and other retailers over recent months.

These are not all available yet from Tallents House, so there is no point in phoning for them!

Full list - product codes will be provided later:

Business Sheets:  1st class, 2nd class, and 1st class Large

Booklets:  4 x 1st, 4 x 1st Large, 8 x 2nd. 
 

More details when available.

UPDATE 3 February

Royal Mail have said that this is simply a font change, but Robert writes:

"Seems likely to me the Textphone info is the real visible change here as most of these items have already appeared with the 2025 Rebrand." 

As John H confirmed:

"the Textphone info was present on the 8x Christmas booklets, but dropped on the 4x. " 

Here is an earlier 2nd class booklet, followed by the Christmas 1st class x4 and x8 without the Textphone line showing all the changes. (Thanks to Robert and John H).

Original back cover showing dimensions for which the stamps are valid, phone & textphone numbers and website

Book of 8 Christmas cover showing phone & textphone numbers, website, QR code for last posting dates and URL for postcode finder

Book of 4 Christmas cover which has dropped the textphone number and provided the Relay UK number for deaf, hearing or speech impaired users.  The phone number and website are retained, and the QR code for last posting dates and URL for postcode finder on the book of 8 continue.

If that's the only change it remains to be seen whether Stanley Gibbons will identify these by a separate number or sub-number.  But As there is much more too it than simply the removal of the Textphone number, it seems that this should qualify for a new catalogue sub-number.  

Whether the Validity (size) details return on the post-Christmas definitive booklets produced in 2026 remains to be seen.

Back in 2019 I reported that when the Printer's imprint was removed and the FSC logo was added these were both identified in the Concise.  But when the phone numbers changed from 0845 to 0345 this was consigned to a footnote, even though collectors usually wanted both.  So because of this inconsistency, we will have to wait and see!  I think the difference is enough to warrant a new catalogue number.

UPDATE 15 February

Royal Mail have started delivering these new products to dealers with standing orders, and from this we can see that the text panel is the same as the (later) 4 x 1st Christmas while the Validity text returns to normal.   Here's the 2nd class book of 8, with cylinder numbers.  (Click on any image to see an enlarged version.)

2nd x 8 booklet with revised text spring 2026.

---

Machin Definitive first day cover offers at reduced prices.

Some collectors collect first day covers (FDCs) because they are attractive with a cover design which complements the stamps.  Others collect because they are also a reminder of the date the stamps were issued, and in the case of definitives it helps to identify different versions of the same stamp when comparison of mint stamps might be more difficult.

Official first day covers have been produced for basic new definitives and for prestige book definitive panes (usually the only panes they provide on first day covers).

But there are variants for which there is no official FDC, because Royal Mail do not regard the stamp as new.

FDC for new 1st class security stamp
from Olympic retail booklet

When we started producing FDCs we tried to fill those gaps, not with especially designed covers but in the main with the covers that Royal Mail produced for the issue. We generally used standard definitive covers for definitive variants, or the cover produced for a special stamp issue, such as a retail or prestige booklet.

Recognising that the PSB panes often contained duplicates or stamps which were not new, we gave our customers a cheaper option than Royal Mail by using just singles of the new stamps in the panes.

Reviewing our stock of Definitive FDCs I find that there are some which never made it to our web-shop, and have only ever been offered at the time of issue on our website, and those which were are now offered at lower clearance prices.  I hope there will be some of interest to more recent followers of the blog and long-time readers.

The list is a pdf file which will remain listed in the Links table to the right of this page. A separate file, linked from that one, has illustrations of some of the covers, and scans can be provided for any others.

Because it's a pdf file you cannot leave comments there, so please follow the usual pattern and leave a comment here for any covers that you want.  As usual, there are several of some, and only one in stock for many.

To order:

- please leave a comment here with your name, and then 

- send an email with your Name and Address and Blog Follower ID to my usual address - see top right.  And indicate which item you want (A, B, etc) in case more than one is available.  Please check the existing comments before you write.   

I will process requests in the order they are received but not always immediately - I am not checking every five minutes!   If other people have already asked, by all means put your name down, but we have very low stock of some of these covers.

Thank you for looking - further discounts for larger orders.

---

Concorde 50th anniversary - set and miniature sheet 21 January 2026.

The aircraft which has appeared on most British stamps is almost certainly the Concorde supersonic airliner. 

Since its first flight in 1969 Concorde has appeared on several other stamps - I haven't counted, but it's probably ahead of the Spitfire (and I don't count the Red Arrows flight as nine planes on one stamp!) 

Now on the 50th anniversary of the first commercial flghts from London and Paris to Bahrain and Rio de Janeiro respectively Royal Mail is issuing a set and miniature sheet, the latter paying homage to the original issues in 1969.

Royal Mail write-up

On 21st January 1976, Concorde flew simultaneous flights from Heathrow to Bahrain by British Airways and from Paris Charles de Gaulle to Rio by Air France, with each aircraft taking off from Heathrow and Paris at precisely the same time 11.40am. The supersonic plane became the icon of the 1970s with an aim to beat the barriers of time and space and to connect a much smaller, faster and globalized world. 

Those passengers were the first to see the curvature of the Earth below them and the sky turning from blue to black above. Over the next 27 years, millions more were to experience ‘time travel’, arriving in New York at a local time an hour or so earlier than their departure time in London. 

Its supersonic speed meant that on certain early evening transatlantic flights departing from Heathrow or Paris, it was possible to take off just after sunset and catch up with the sun, landing in daylight. This was much publicised by British Airways, who used the slogan “Arrive before you leave.” 

Whilst Concorde no longer takes to the air, even fifty years later, Concorde remains a technical marvel and a much-loved icon of civil aviation. 

The stamps 

50th Anniversary of Concorde set of 8 x 1st class stamps issued 21 January 2026

8 x 1st Class stamps
British Pre-Production Concorde Rolled Out, 1971; British Pre-Production Concorde In Flight, 1974;  Concorde’s First British Airways Livery, 1974; Concorde’s First UK Commercial Flight, 1976;  Concorde Flying Overhead, 1985;  Celebrating 10 Years of Service, 1985; Concorde’s Last British Airways Livery, 1997; Final Commercial Flight 2003.

Technical details 

The 50 x 30 mm stamps, designed by Common Curiosity, were printed in litho on gummed paper by Cartor Security Printers in four sheets of 60 in se-tenant pairs, perforated 14.  Acknowledgements: The Concorde aircraft, name and associated trademarks are used under licence with kind permission of Airbus and British Airways. AIRBUS and Concorde are protected trademarks of Airbus. All rights reserved.  British pre-production Concorde rolled out, photograph © Victor Drees/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; British pre-production Concorde in flight, photograph by Ken Petitt © The British Airliner Collection; Concorde’s last British Airways livery, photograph © John M Dibbs; all other photographs © Adrian Meredith Photography

Miniature Sheet

50th Anniversary of Concorde miniature sheet of 4 x 1st class stamps issued 21 January 2026

The 192 x 74 mm miniature sheet, containing stamps 50 x 30 mm, was also designed by Common Curiosity, featuring original designs by Michael and Sylvia Goaman and David Gentleman, based on early Concorde models and prototypes.   The fourth stamp is an unadopted 1969 design by David Gentleman. Printed by Cartor Security Printers in litho on gummed paper. Images © Royal Mail Group Ltd 2026.  (The stamps are larger than those issued in 1969.)

Collectors Sheet

All eight sheet stamps from the Concorde issue are presented alongside labels with additional imagery all set on top of the striking image of 4 of the aircraft in the air. This image was taken on Christmas Eve, 1985, when British Airways organized a unique formation flight with four Concorde aircraft to celebrate 10 years of passenger service.   The Collector Sheet is printed on self-adhesive paper of course which is different from the set.

50th Anniversary of Concorde collectors sheet of 8 x 1st class stamps issued 21 January 2026

Products Available

Set of 8, miniature sheet, presentation pack, collectors sheet, first day covers (2), stamp cards (13),  press sheet of 10 miniature sheets, coin covers (3), framed miniature sheet, framed collectors sheet.

A selection of earlier Concorde stamps on maximum cards

.

These stamps are reported to have been on sale last week, ie around 10th January.

---