Show Me Your Highway Post Office Aka Hpo Covers

Of course, I have picked up an interest in HPO covers. This cover would work in my Abraham Lincoln or Route 66 topical collections and is from my place of birth.

What do you mean by highway post office ?

they are mobile or travelling postoffices..they looked something like buses..in Guatemala they are called ambulantes !!

Darn it dude..i have one or two somewhere now I am going to have to dig them out and show them !!

Ok, after going through 8 or 9 hundred covers I found this one !

OK thanks. Great postmark.

G'Day all this is my only Mobil post office envelope/cover and like you Phil I had to look through all the covers to find it .

Phil & Harry thank you for sharing. I was beginning to wonder if anyone had any covers to show.

ellasguy,
HPO's were meant to take the place of Railroad Post Offices, in fact the interior of the buses looked almost identical to the RPO setup at that time in the mid 1950's. Ironically, RPO service lasted 3 years longer than HPO service. The first HPO bus is on display at the National Postal Musuem in Washington D.C. There is some good info on their website regarding this short lived method of mail service.

When we went to Washington 2006..the buzz was not to miss the postal museum...we just could not make it..we had like 3 days and nights in D.C. and with attending the show every day..the free show on the Capital lawn etc: etc: the time just flew..i took my wife on a trolley ride to see some of the main sites..but being Memorial Day weekend much was roped off for the parade....

Phil,
We missed the show at The National Mall & Capital Lawn. We did see the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington. It was very impressive watching the changing of the guard.

Does anyone have any other HPO's to show?

I was just given a stack of old "Covers" magazine from the early 1950's at my last club meeting. The first one I picked and flipped through had a multi page article about Highway Post Offices. There was even a listing of all the routes and offer to purchase a complete set of covers for each TRIP. I will attempt to scan it to share, once I've read the whole article.

Here's a few I've come across recently. Will

Great covers everyone.
This is all new to me and I am learning.
Great topic and subject.

In this something specifically American or are we talking about Post Buses/Vans the world over ??
Can someone post some pics of the type/s of Vehicles used ??

Thanks.

Londonbus1

Wow those are great

Great thread stamperdude and thanks for sharing everyone.

Dianne

battlestamps,
I really like the cachets on your HPO's.

Londonbus1,
I started this thread with USA covers. But you are more than welcome to add any WW covers. You can see one of the buses on the National Postal Mueum's website. The interiors looked a lot like the RPO cars.

I just won 2 lots of HPO Missouri & Oklahoma covers on ebay. I'll try to make time to scan them and share. If I get a some I don't need I hope to sell them here. I picked them up for my Route 66 collection.