Railroad Cancels: Wabash Railroad

The Wabash Railroad was a major railroad in the midwest that operated a route that ran directly between Kansas City and Detroit. This railroad would eventually come under the control of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Cancellations by Wabash subsidiaries will be posted later.

For more see the Wabash Railroad Historical Society at: http://www.wabashrhs.org/

Railroad Cancels: Great Northern Railway

The Great Northern Railway running from St. Paul, Minnesota to Seattle, Washington, was the creation of the 19th century railroad tycoon James J. Hill and was developed from the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. The Great Northern's route was the northernmost transcontinental railroad route in the United States and was north of the Northern Pacific Railway. The Great Northern was a privately funded transcontinental railroad, though some of its predecessor roads received land grants.

Learn more about the GN Railway at: http://www.gnrhs.org/

Railroad Cancels: Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad

Hand cancelled six days after the tax went into effect, this 2 Cent Documentary stamp was used by the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad.

The DL&W RR was a coal line, hauling coal out of Pennsylvania's Lackawanna River valley to its eastern terminus in Hoboken NJ. The line eventually extended Buffalo NY, and served as a land-bridge line between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic ocean. The DL&W was formed in the early 1850's, saw great fortune in the 1930s, then went into a steady decline as America shifted away from coal as its primary fuel. DLWRR eventually merged with former rival Erie RR in 1960 to form the Erie Lackawanna (EL). This merger of 2 once-great roads, both going extinct as their primary livlihood dried up, then disappeared altogether when the EL was one of the six bankrupt railroads that formed Conrail in 1976.

I will Erie Railroad cancellations coming soon.

Railroad Cancels: Michigan Central Railroad

This stamp shows a hand cancellation by the Michigan Central Railroad. My collection holds MCRR cancels for July 2 and 3 and several other dates in July, 1898.

Michigan Central Railroad: The MCRR was owned and operated by the New York Central RR by 1898. The Michigan Central Railroad was originally incorporated in 1846 to establish rail service between Detroit and St. Joseph, Michigan . The railroad later operated in the states of Michigan, Indiana and Illinois, and in Ontario. Not until 1867 was the railroad operated as part of the New York Central Railroad.

Find out more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Central_Railroad
or here: http://www.michiganrailroads.com/RRHX/Railroads/MichiganCentral/MichiganCentralHomePage.htm

Railroad Cancels and The 2 Cent Documentary of 1898 - 1901 - Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway

Welcome to 1898 Revenues. I have a special interest in used One and Two Cent Documentaries, and used Proprietaries. Please join me and add comments if you have similar interests. I will highlight the 2 Cent Documentaries, especially cancellations and the companies that made them.

This stamp has printed and handstamp cancellations from the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway, commonly known as the Milwaukee Road. At the time this stamp was cancelled the Milwaukee Road did not extend its lines to the Pacific coast. Eventually it would, and would make extensive use of electric powered locomotives in the west.

About two years ago I succesfully bid at auction for a collection of 2 cent Battleship documentaries in the form of a calender that tracked each day of the tax period for the use of these stamps. The stamp above, for example, was in the calender blank for May 21, 1901. Put together by Henry Tolman, this calender was a minor part of one of the better US revenue collections ever assembled. But while a minor part of Tolman's great collection , the calender is a marvel. Most days of the nearly 3 year tax period have been competed by stamps cancelled by railroads or major US industrial concerns.

For the next few months I will use images from this calender, and some from my general collection, to highlight railroad cancels on these 2 cent stamps.