Hpo Cover Collectors - Cancellation Question

I recently acquired the cover below and am puzzled by the cancellation. The sender, Culkin Stamp Co., was apparently in Omaha, Nebraska. So how did the cover get a Kansas City & Carthage. HPO postmark?

It appears that the dealer may have specialized in HPO covers and was mailing out some information on route changes or new routes to customers. Would the dealer have drop shipped these covers to KC asking that they be postmarked by the referenced HPO?

Is the Carthage in the postmark Missouri, Texas, Illinois, Tennessee, or another state?

Thanks.

Don

You are correct in that Wren Culkin was a dealer who handled HPO covers. This envelope was mailed by him, probably along with others, to the railway mail clerk at the Kansas City terminal with a request that it be posted on board the HPO. Mail from HPOs, other than first trip covers, is quite scarce and rarely seen. Later, Culkin be came the curator of the philatelic collection at Boys Town, Nebraska.

Thanks, jarnick, for the information re: Wren Culkin. Unless I hear otherwise, I will assume the route is Kansas City & Carthage (MO).

Don

Kansas City & Carthage, Missouri is correct. The first trip on this route was April 18, 1950. The last trip December 16, 1966.

Bumping this thread up with another question:

Is the cancel on the cover below a HPO cancel? Everything is okay except the RPO in the cancel dial.

Why the RPO in the cancel dial of a Highway Post Office?

Don

https://www.stampsmarter.org/Learning/HPOView.html
Go To 'View By Town' tab and select Corinth from drop down list.

FYI, this HPO database contains examples of every known HPO cover/route/trip. They did not have their HPO canceller at hand when they started and for a while so they used what they had, the old RPO canceller.
Don

Correct. I've noticed a number of my HPO covers turning up on ebay with the interim RPO cancels, used after the HPO first trip, but before the HPO cancel arrived.

Thanks, Don for your response.

Seems odd that every thing in the cancel dial was changeable, except the abbreviation RPO.

Don

Thanks, too, Jarnick.

The postmark date on this cover was six weeks after the first trip on this route. Planning for the new route must have excluded an appropriate cancelling device!

Was there a Corinth & Jackson RPO?

I noticed the same username from my previous post and the addressee's name on this cover. I hope you sold or gave this cover away at some point in the past.

Don

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THE rim of a RPO or HPO postmarker wasn't changable.
The U.S.P.O.D. issued postmarker for RPOs was; Item 715 Steel Postmarking and Canceling Stamp, consisting of block, removable type, set screw for securing type, and handle, characters of the stamp cut in relief in a circle.
The removable type was the center section with trip #, month, day, and year.

Thanks littleriverphil:

I don't have the RPO route listings for Mississippi, but if the route name wasn't changeable in the canceler, there must have been a Corinth & Jackson RPO in service before the HPO route began.

Can someone confirm when the Corinth & Jackson RPO, was discontinued?

Don

Don, here is what I found in the RPO catalogue;

Hi littleriverphil:

Thanks for the listing. The RPO route is not what I expected. Although, a Corinth (MS) & Jack (TN) RPO canceling device would work just as well.

If 1955 was the discontinuance date for the Corinth & Jack RPO. That would mean the two routes were operating concurrently for a year.

Don

For many routes, the mail business was an add-on to existing passenger business. But as interstate highway and car ownership became more commonplace, the railroad passenger business dried up. This left many railroad routes unprofitable even with the postal business. Some routes were cut over immediately but I assume that some stayed concurrent due to volume and that some may not have been hemorrhaging as much money as others.
Don

Don:

Yes, the discontinuance of rail passenger traffic to smaller towns USA was an interesting socioeconomic phenomena of the 20th century. Since I started collecting RPO cancels in a small way I have been amazed at how available rail travel was to so many small towns in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

This discussion about the cross over use of RPO/HPO cancelling devices begs another question:

Is there a mini topical collecting opportunity here? That is, collecting HPO route cancels that initially used RPO cancelling devices? Surely, not all HPO routes began without its own canceling device.

I still find it surprising that the Postal Transportation System HPO route planners did not have appropriate cancelling devices on hand at the start of a new route.

Don

"Since I started collecting RPO cancels in a small way I have been amazed at how available rail travel was to so many small towns in the 18th and early 19th centuries".

In those days it was both financially feasible and an economic necessity. And people were moving around a lot, both for business and personal reasons. It was the only way to travel without a horse.