Bern–Lötschberg–Simplon railway 1913 - 1963

The Bern–Lötschberg–Simplon (BLS) railway, known since the merger of the "old" BLS with the Bern–Neuenburg-Bahn (BN), the Gürbetal–Bern–Schwarzenburg-Bahn (GBS) and the Simmentalbahn (SEZ) in 1997 as the BLS Lötschbergbahn, is a Swiss railway company. It is the largest standard gauge network on the Swiss Railway system apart from the Federal Railways, SBB-CFF-FFS. The railway had not been built at the time that the Federal government took control of the five big Swiss standard gauge railway companies in 1902 and so it led a separate existence, being considered the largest of the Swiss "private" railways, although the majority of its capital was owned by the cantonal government of Bern and also the Confederation held about 1/5. In 2006 the company merged with Regionalverkehr Mittelland AG to form a new company called BLS AG.

The stamp on this FDC was issued by Switzerland to commemorate the 50^th Anniversary of the Bern–Lötschberg–Simplon (BLS) railway inon 21.3.1963.

Thank you Maria for this nice cover.