Railway Post Offices (R.p.o.) In Canada

Cjusz_911: I've come as far as the King Edward series in my search and found this rather moth-eaten one from a pile of 1c King Edward VII (Canada Scott#89) stamps. It displays a small portion of the Ott&Ft Wm rpo. This may be the worst stamp that I have and would have been purged had I not figured out the nomenclature.

By special request, 1898 Special Delivery with TOR. HAM. & LONDON R.P.O.
January 27, 1903.

Here are a couple of others that were kicking around.

TORonto & SARnia M.C. No.5



Something & North Bay R.R.
There was a thread relating to this one, but I'll have to find it.

edit - The consensus on this one was TOR(onto) & North Bay
Interesting discussion.
https://goscf.com/t/19898&SearchTer...rth,bay,r.,r.



and Moose Jaw & Calgary RPO on a piece of KGVI postal stationary.

Jamesw: that strike on what looks like the King George VI stationary envelope piece (Canada Scott#U53; Webb#EN53) is fantastic. Given my old catalogues I'm looking for Bujutsu to jump in if I'm wrong.

I agree with cynical, the rpo on the stationary is awesome.

Here are three others I've found so far :

ELK POINT & EDM. R.P.O.


FT. ERIE. NO. & ST. T. R.P.O.


(????) & SWAN RIVER R.P.O.



This last one still eludes me. If anyone can help, it would be greatly appreciated! :)
It's a square circle and the letters I can identify without doubt are "CAMP M.C. LO"
Before "CAMP" I think I see a "&"
After the "LO" I think it's "CAL", not sure though

That's the Quebec & Campbellton squared circle. There are very few squared circle RPO cancellations, so it doesn't take too much effort to go through my TPG Shaw book looking for type 2 cancellations. But it does point out one of my frustrations with that catalogue - the listings are sort of semi-complete in that they just show enough info to correctly identify the marking, but they don't contain everything that's on the cancellation. The listing for that cancellation, Q-197, is shown only as "QUE. & CAMP. LOCAL", omitting the "M.C." part. It just makes for more effort than is necessary, when faced with a bunch of similar cancellations.

My edition of Shaw contains a photo of a cover using this cancellation, and it has an extra bit of info not shown elsewhere. "A nice example on cover showing the second state of this hammer, both the top and bottom bars have been divided into two thin lines."

Ryan

Cjusz_911: I think you will find your Swan River rpo in the following document entitled A Database of Manitoba Railway Post Office Postmarks Part II-CNR Routes by Robert K. Lane, which can be viewed through the following link:

http://www.wep.ca/stamps/database/man-rpo-cnr.pdf

Here is a Toronto&Orillia rpo on a 3c King George V (Canada Scott#109)

Here is a London&Owen Sound rpo on a 1930 2c King George V (Canada Scott#165) stamp.

This one I think is a Montreal Smith Falls&Toronto rpo (short version on stamp) on a 4c KG VI stamp (Canada Scott#306 or Canada Scott#287 - not sure which.

Some news that Canadian rpo collectors might be interested in (and something that I missed) is that the Northlander passenger train from Toronto to Cochrane was discontinued last month. Those of you who have not seen the beautiful Temagami railway station will have to get there by car or bus now. Also, no more walking in to Union Station in downtown Toronto and travelling north by train all the way to Moosonee on Ontario's seacoast (i.e., James Bay/Hudson Bay).

@Ryan : Thanks for the ID. I've received the bnaps 2009 RPO catalogue that updates and revise Shaw and Ludlow, and it's great. The complaints you have about Shaw is fixed in this catalogue as every entry describes what you will find on each known hammer, very precisely.

For example, the entry for the one you IDed for me reads :
"QUE. & CAMP. M.C. LOCAL / · No. 20. ·"
The periods and interpuncts location reflects what you will find on the hammer, it helps a lot to differentiate similar looking hammers.

Using the catalogue, I've found in my collection a new LRD for the Moose Jaw & Shaunavon's hammer 2a (Ludlow W-91.021, bnaps catalogue WT-459.021), confirmed by the editor of the catalogue, Ross Gray.

Previous LRD was 02/02/1935. My stamp, even though it's not a pretty strike, clearly suggest a new LRD of 06/08/1935

Here is the scan :

Cjusz: congrats re your LRD find.

....and this rpo just in courtesy of Backroads: Halifax&Campbellton (HX.&C.) on the good ship Matthew (1949 Canada Scott#282).

I mentioned some time ago in another thread that I had thrown out all my old issues of Canadian Stamp News (and have since regretted it) as well as most of my 30-40 year old auction catalogues. Flipping through a surviving 1979 John H. Talman catalogue I noted this b&w cover photo with a gaggle of Canada Scott#85 stamps on it with even more Harrisburg&Southampton M.C. rpo cancels and scanned it.

Flipping through my image files this morning I noted that it was posted on October 20, 1899, making today its 113th birthday. Being the wonderful person my mother wanted me to be I thought I might show it to you. I know the person who owns this cover would do the same if he or she was aware of this event.





For those interested in some history the Harrisburg-Southampton railway postal car service began in 1893 roughly a decade after the Grand Trunk Railway took over the Great Western Railway's routes. There were big plans afoot to make Harrisburg an important junction hub given that it was also on the main east-west Hamilton-London-Sarnia line. This plan was thwarted, however, when it was found that there was not enough water in the area to support the large town that would result or the many thirsty locomotives that would ply these lines. The "wye" junction is still discernible on Google Maps (see below). Harrisburg's post office closed in 1940 and its train station in 1960.





I would be remiss if I did not mention another anniversary that just passed a week ago (October 15) that relates to the Southampton end of the line. Hurricane Hazel swept through southern Ontario on that date in 1954 and it was a night I won't forget. The evening train pulled away from Palmerston and wound its way northwest through Harriston, Clifford, Mildmay, Walkerton, Cargill, Paisley, Port Elgin and then the final few miles to its destination. However, It didn't reach Southampton. The floodwaters from the storm had weakened a bridge over a stream about a mile south of Southampton. When the bridge gave way the engine ploughed into the opposite bank. The engineer and fireman died in a melange of steam, swirling water and mud.