I had the pleasure of briefly meeting with Dick Blakeny in Bangkok in 1994 and seeing the impressive amounts of data he had accumulated in recording not only the scarcely documented rail post system but also registration labels and postal stationery.

       I remember Dick asking me what area of Thai philatelity I would pursue and I told him I had interest in Railroad postmarks because after the Canal (Klongs) it was the most rapid mode of transportation at the time in Siam. He commented to me it would be a difficult road to pursue because of many factors.    

       The lack of documentation in what stations were issued, what device types at what time periods, the at the time frequent varieties of English spelling in the names of Thai towns and cities and the similarities of regular mail cancels and some rail mail cancels.  He was spot on at times it can be a frustrating endeavor with limited clear full post cancellations on a stamp and the very limited "on cover" examples that survived throughout the years. 

     Rail post cancels on covers (letters) are very hard to find from before the "express" era.   Most of this mail was used for correspondences within Siam and usually was a low value non-collectable / desirable stamp or a postal card which was discarded.  The size of the early wooden rectangular cancels and the larger than normal sized Swiss style cancels leaves the collector with all too often,  fragments of station names to deduce the stations name from.  

       Therefore it's a very challenging area to collect and to document but very rewarding when you get that complete station name or deduct from bits of Thai or English letters a best guess at an origin.