Canadian National Railway Mail Car*

Railway Post Office (RPO) and Transportation Post Office (TPO) postmarks attract numerous philatelists for reasons of postal history, interest in railway history, waterway history,and their pure collectibility.

As with other specializations, RPOs almost demand the availability of good reference information because making sense of the many postmarks, hammers, routes, and other variations is benefitted greatly by the experiences of others.

For meetings of the RPO Study Group, please click HERE.

Collectors of Canadian RPOs have several wonderful publications available to them for reference and cataloguing. A few of these are:


Inside the Mail Car*
  • - A History of Canadian R.P.O.s, 1853-1967; by L. F. Gillam, published in 1979 by the American Philatelic Society.

    This book is organized by railway companies. It includes a short history of the development of each railway system, a chronological history of the RPOs used on the lines of the systems, pertinent dates and maps.

    Subsequent studies by many collectors have produced updates to this information, so that the reader should be careful to check information in this book where it is speculative. nevertheless, the speculations offer real opportunities for new RPO collectors to embark on their own research - which is a bonus!

  • - Catalogue of Canadian Railway Cancellations and Related Transportation Postmarks (and supplements).

    This indispensible catalogue was produced in 1982 by Lewis Ludlow and is in the process of being revised and updated. It, and the supplements produced by the BNAPS RPO Study Group, are the common reference point for listings of postmarks, correlations with train numbers, dates, rarity factors, as well as a wealth of information about RPOs and their history. A major revision of this catalogue, edited by Ross Gray, was released in September, 2009. For details, check HERE .

  • - BNAPS RPO Study Group Newsletters. Members of the Study Group benefit from regular newsletters that provide some listings updates and reports from studies conducted by members. A few very hard working members of the group, led by award-winning editor Ross Gray, regularly produce this interesting newsletter - worth much more than the annual dues!

  • - Proof Strikes of Canada; Vol. XVI, Transportation Proof Strikes of Canada, Part 1. Edited by J. Paul Hughes, and published by Robert A. Lee, in 1992. These books are companion pieces to the several proof books published by Lee and offer the detail of the original strikes of RPO postmarks. No additional information is included but these books are very useful for clarifying poor strikes on the collectors stamps or covers.

  • - Proof Strikes of Canada; Vol. XVII, Transportation Part 2 and Squared Circle Proof Strikes of Canada. Edited by J. Paul Hughes, and published by Robert A. Lee, in 1992.

  • - Travelling Post Office Postmarks of Newfoundland and Labrador, by Brain Stalker. Found HERE.

  • - Railway Postmarks of the Maritimes, prepared and edited by Ross Gray, published by the Canadian Railway Post Office Study Group, BNAPS Ltd., June 2000. Found HERE.

  • - Old Time Trains An interesting website.

  • - For other useful RPO web links, click HERE.

  • - Recollections of RPO service, please click Here.

    Some reference material for other specialties, such as squared circles, are useful (3 Canadian RPOs were designed with the squared circle format). RPO collectors also find great value in older railway maps and railway time tables. Some are found on the Internet, using straight-forward search key-names. One of the intriguing aspects of RPO collecting is the challenge of tracing actual routes taken by covers showing many postmarks.

    For more about RPOs and some definitions, click HERE

    * - photos taken by the Webmaster at the Edmonton Railway Museum

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