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

Thank you cynical for that bit of history about the Southampton end of the line.

Here is another #85,
TOR. & GRAVENHURST · M.C : G.T.R. / No.1




C.P.RY M.C. / BRITISH COLUMBIA

A guess on my part but this may be a North Bay&Timmins rpo-46 on a 2c 1937 King George VI (Canada Scott#232). This mail car ran on the Temiskaming and Northern Ontario Railway line that would become Ontario Northland in 1946.

@cynical. I beleive it is Timmins. The only other choice that could match "NORTHBAY &" and #46 would be Cochrane, but that doesn't seem to fit with what I can see on your stamp. Besides, the LRD for the Cochrane one is in 1935...

If it is Timmins, it's ON-350 (Ludlow O-202), rarity factor of "A" and an ERD - LRD of 1935/03/18 - 1964/04/04

Here is a UX17b postcard with Halifax and StJohn M.C.
A nice and clean cancel! :)

They must have loved banging that hammer down on those Canada Post cards and looking at the results even if they supposedly did not have the time to admire their work.

It seems appropriate given that it's Remembrance Day to put this here:

1942 5c King George VI naval uniform stamp
Canada Scott#255 Camp.&Levis RPO cancel

Many of you have probably read Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, in which there is the ubiquitous line "Who is John Galt". You may not know this but Canadians philatelic enthusiasts pursue a similar quest only its "Who is rpo postal mail clerk 13". If you want to know more about him go to this BNAPS link:

http://www.bnatopics.org/journals/a...o.%20125.pdf

If you have any stamps or covers that he postmarked/cancelled post them here.

That's a great and intriguing article cynical. Thanks a lot for that!

I've posted (in this very post, page 3) a Quebec & Campbellton RPO square cancel I have on a Queen Victoria 3 cents numeral. I'm reposting it here, but a bit tinkered with so as to make it more obvious :



As far as I can tell, it could be the one with the number 13 added. In the BNAPS Catalogue of Canadian Railway Cancellations there is a great picture with all 6 states of this hammer. The one with the mail clerk's no.13 added is state 4, ERD / LRD of 1900/04/07 - 1902/01/29. Here is a scan of that picture :



That's a fascinating subject! I just wish I could find a whole bunch of them square circle RPOs... one can always dream no?

Just this found this Newfoundland RPO.



N & W RAIL...
NEW...

Any thoughts?

Jamesw: your Newfoundland & Western Railway rpo/tpo on the 1898 1c Queen Victoria (Newfoundland Scott#80)is shown below. I believe it's the one in the lower left corner (courtesy of BNA Topics):



...and this tidbit also from BNA Topics (1995 No1 p79):

For some reason, I thought RPOs were a thing of the past.
My wife's birthday was on Tuesday, and cleaning up, I found, looking at the postage on the package from her parents in Vancouver, a modern RPO cancel on one of Canada Post's ugly stickdown machine postage labels.

Kitsilano RPO



They are no where near a train station, so I'm at a loss to explain this one.

edit- an after thought. perhaps parcel post is sent on the train?

That stands for "Rural Post office" James. There is certainly no railway post office in Kitsilano (part of Vancouver).

...or "Retail Post Office" I forget which is the proper name.

Must be 'Retail'. Kitsilano is major urban.

Oh yeh, I know Kits well. It was just a slip of my brain after a hectic business trip in Louisiana.

Besides the mysterious number "13" does anyone have any rpo's in their collections for the "wandering" mail clerk R.W. Wakelin who appears to have been on more western Canada train runs than anyone else (henceforth to be known as "wandering Wakelin")?