Railway express agency

robertmacdowell · **Posted:** Thu Jan 19, 2012 10:54 pm

How did railway express move about the country exactly?
Was it in boxcars, baggage cars, express cars for that purpose, or rpo?
Did they have a hub or network of mini hubs or did packages get classified at every terminal.

Jim Vaitkunas · **Posted:** Fri Jan 20, 2012 12:42 am

Bob,

Sorry I can't help you with your question. Totally out of my area of expertise.

But BIG WOW! What a great question! Has a book been written on the subject? I can't wait to see the responses to your post.

The Railway Express probably had a interconnecting system similar to the Pullman Company's web of sleeper car routes. It was tremendous and only when I read Night Trains did I fully realize and appreciate Pullman's sophisticated and complicated system. I'm sure Railway Express, and Adams and Southern and the other express lines had a similar system.

Thanks!

Tarheelrrds · **Joined:** Fri Oct 03, 2008 10:33 am **Posts:** 23

Yes there was a book written on the REA it is out of print .

Model Railroading's Guide to the Railway Express Agency: An Overview by V. S. Roseman (Paperback - Sept. 1998)

Also Trains did an article on the REA do not rember what issue few years back.

Alan Ashworth

Al Stangenberger · **Joined:** Mon Aug 23, 2004 12:59 pm **Posts:** 650

Here are the two entries in UC Berkeley's catalog:

HE6475.D47 2007

DeRouin, Edward M.. 2007.
Moving mail and express by rail
La Fox, Ill. :Pixels Pub. 224 p.

Mail and express - from wagon to piggyback. Getting
started ; Initial express consolidation ; Postal
advancements ; The first all-mail train ; Shifting from a
self-sufficient society to store-bought economy --
Remembering dad. Consolidating express ; The only
constant - change ; The not-so-fabulous fifties ; Into the
sixties ; End of the line ; In the era of Amtrak and
Conrail -- Railway and mail organization -- An interview:
one man's recollections about the Railway Express Agency -
- Small town business: northwestern Missouri recollections
-- Operations -- Baggage -- Making trains -- A summer
night at Richmond, Indiana: an example of intermediate
terminal activity -- Railway post office car routines --
Photo gallery. A look east ; A look south ; A look
midwest ; A look west -- Railway Express Agency train and
car information. Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe ; Chicago &
Eastern Illinois ; Chesapeake & Ohio, Pere Marquette
District ; Chicago, Burlington & Quincy ; Chicago,
Milwaukee St. Paul & Pacific ; Chicago, Rock Island &
Pacific ; Great Northern ; Illinois Central ; Missouri
Pacific ; Union Pacific -- Railway consist information.
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe ; Chicago, Burlington & Quincy
; Gulf, Mobile & Ohio ; Illinois Central and Central of
Georgia ; Chicago, Milwaukee St. Paul & Pacific ; Missouri
Pacific ; New York Central ; Christmas - A holiday look at
the Burlington, Grand Trunk Western, and Pennsylvania --
Appendices. Postal service payments to carriers by mode
for transport of domestic mail ; Association of American
Railroads head end car classification ; CB&Q mail crane ;
CB&Q baggage wagon painting standard.
610 20 Railway Express Agency: History.
=========================================================
HE5903.R35.G37 2003
Garrett, Klink. 2003. Ten turtles to Tucumcari :a personal history of the Railway Express Agency / Klink Garrett with Toby Smith. 1st ed. Albuquerque : University of New Mexico Press. 172 p., [8] p. of plates Includes bibliographical references (p. 165-166) and index.
610 20 Railway Express Agency: History.

tomgears · **Posted:** Fri Jan 20, 2012 9:29 am

From Google books:

Title Model Railroading's Guide to the Railway Express: An Overview
Author V. S. Roseman
Edition illustrated
Publisher Rocky Mountain Pub., 1998
ISBN 0961269251, 9780961269258

Title Railway Express Agency
Authors Lambert M Surhone, Miriam T Timpledon, Susan F Marseken
Publisher VDM Verlag Dr. Mueller AG & Co. Kg, 2010
ISBN 6132036318, 9786132036315
Length 128 pages

eldiner · **Joined:** Mon Aug 23, 2004 8:39 am **Posts:** 534

I can recommend Ten Turtles to Tucumcari. It follows the author's career from part time clerk to senior management. Lots of detail along the way of how the company operated, especially how a local agency worked.

railfan44 · **Posted:** Fri Jan 20, 2012 12:31 pm

For local delivery and pick up REA packages road in the baggage compartment of local trains or in REA trucks. In small towns the RR's ticket agent was also the REA and Western Union agent.

For intercity transport REA packages were usually in express cars on passenger trains. The express cars either belonged to the railroads or REA. REA had refrigerator cars also. Here's a picture pulled off the net. It says it is a refer but I doubt it. It looks like a WWII troop (maybe hospital) car with the windows plated over. It does not say "Refrigerator." Note the comment below the picture.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=2758929

fkrock · **Posted:** Fri Jan 20, 2012 3:02 pm

A little quick history of REA:

In 1917 the Federal government nationalized American railroads. Four major express companies and several smaller companies also were nationalized and combined. Then after the nationalized railroads were returned to their original owners, American Railway Express, Inc. was created to operate the combined express agancies.

In March, 1929, this express company was purchased by 56 railroads and became Railway Express Agency. REA went bankrupt and out of business in 1975 when it could no longer compete with UPS. Abandonment of passenger trains that transported REA shipments in head end cars was one reason.