Let's See Your Railway Post Office Rpo Items

Not restricted Prahanoaki,
can you expand a little please with your post?
How do you recognise a TPO from Lithuania
what part of the cancel indicates a TPO?
Thanks.

rod222,


This first one is Polish as you probably know. 2 names of different locations in the upper part of the postmark, in this case Zemgale - Wilno, and the bottom of the postmark, you see "No.293" which is the line number. This is a typical Polish TPO postmark. Wilno is the Polish name for Vilnius (the present capital of Lithuania), it was under the Polish occupation at that time. Zemgale was a Latvian border station.


This one is a typical TPO postmark of Imperial Russia. You can tell from the oval format. Early Imperial Russian TPO postmarks are not oval but it shows in the postmark "Pochtovyi vagon" which literally means Wagon post. The number on the center top part of this postmark is the line number. Like the above mentioned Polish postmark, it has 2 names of different locations, Dvinsk - Radzivilishki. Dvinsk is the Russian name for the present Latvian city Daugavpils which is not far from the Lithuanian border, and Radzivilishki is the present Radviliškis, Lithuania located in the central part of the country.


The last one does not give you the name of the location but it tells you in Lithuanian "Pašto vagonas" which also means literally Wagon post. The line number is in the bottom part of the postmark, in this case 5-6, this indicates that they used the same postmark for both directions. 5-6 is for line Memel - Šiauliai (a town in Lithuania). Lithuanian post later uses also the oval format.

Japanese TPO Sendai - Aomori


Itosaki - Hiroshima




Tokyo - Aomori

Some Estonian TPO

Line Valka - Tallinn


Line Valka - Jrboska
Jrboska was part of prewar Estonia but taken by the Soviet and never came back even today.

Here are 3 domestic RPOs, put up for auction last week with no bids:

Sep. 18th, 1906. Spokane, Pasco, and Portland. I believe it says Tr 4. I recall in the early 60's sending out mail to that very RPO. It soon ended though when the PO quit using them. yakboomer

reposted from the US covers section, a video tour of an RPO car:
http://youtu.be/Heb6OtQeLpA

ALSO, another thread with some RPO photos:
https://goscf.com/t/20892&SearchTerms=rpo

The three double circle TPO types used in Yugoslavia before WW2. Postwar types are single circle.

I suspect that like most cancellations in the post WW1 period old Hungarian TPOs may have been used temporarily in SHS. I'd be interested to see any that you might have.

Not necessarily an RPO but it's a Railroad cancel of some type. One of our resident Canadian experts was kind enough to research it and got it figured out. (Thanks 3Dadeo! )



Ottawa & Maniwaki (Quebec) (Ottawa & Gatineau Valley Railway)

Cancel reads;

OTT.& MAN - M.C./ -O.&G.V. Ry-

An Experimental RMS (Railway Mail Service) cancellation on Travancore-Cochin:



Experimental POs were normally established for a set term, to see whether there was sufficient demand to justify making the office permanent. As Travancore-Cochin was absorbed into independent India shortly after this cancellation, it's hard to see why anyone bothered. Perhaps a case of bureaucrats being bureaucrats: this one was on the list for an Experimental PO, and so it got one, regardless of the greater events taking place.

Seattle & Portland RPO. T401, Aug. 22. 1932(?). Anyone know of this railroad, the CMStPPRRC?

Bamra1,
Very impressive collection you have.

stallzer,
wow.. First time see such old Quebec RO.

tonymacg,
What is an experimental RMS? Is it for marketing purpose? survey? or is it just a provisional RMS?

Here is my post today:
German TPO line Insterburg (today Chernyakhovsk, Russia) - Memel (today Klaipeda, Lithuania)

I did a search through all of my used postcards and covers, and even though about 3/4 of them are rail/rail town related, I don't have ONE legible RPO cancel to share!

:-(

Prahanoaki, I explained the Experimental PO system below the scan of the Travancore-Cochin item ... but the scan rather overshadows the text!

The Indian Post Office established huge numbers of Experimental Post Offices, simply using number or letter + numbers cancellations to identify them. They make quite an interesting and inexpensive study in themselves. One or two are quite scarce, from the Persian Gulf during the Second War and so on. Of course, you need to find the cancellations on cover to have any hope of working out where they were used.

Very nice Memel TPO.

Here are a few revisits:

Danzig-Stutthof:

Senegal, St. Louis Dakar TPO:

And a couple French courrier convoyeur cancels: