I have a few questions,
I know that REA had to accept anything for shipment but the only cars I've ever seen are reefers. What did their fleet consist of and did these cars also run on freight trains or only on passenger trains?
What happened to their fleet when they went bankrupt?
Thanks,
John
Hey MC you'll know I'm a "gray beard" when I mention I remember the old wood sided REA reefers. I'n the springtime the IC would run strawberry specials from Hammond, LA to Chicago consisting of up to 12 of these relics behind high wheeled 1100 series Pacifics. The overnight run of the strawberry trains was faster than even the Panama Limited and stops were made only for engine and crew changes. It was quite a sight to see these trains with their white flags flying.
Mark
.....I picked up my first component stereo system here in Muncie at the REA facility. Would have come in from NY behind a passenger train on NYC via REA. The REA facility was very close to our Union Station located here on the NYC on one side and the Nickle Plate on the other. That was the last time I was in that building. It's gone now.
Time frame for all of that was: 1964.
Quentin
Modelcar wrote: .....I picked up my first component stereo system here in Muncie at the REA facility. Would have come in from NY behind a passenger train on NYC via REA. The REA facility was very close to our Union Station located here on the NYC on one side and the Nickle Plate on the other. That was the last time I was in that building. It's gone now.Time frame for all of that was: 1964.
REA lasted well into the Sixties IIRC. It might even have overlapped UPS by a couple of years.
.....I'd say you are close with the late sixties.....
The REA company not only operated the cars mentioned above but also operated space in many baggage cars of some of the finest trains in the land. They also operated baggage cars in many of the so called mail trains that were actually mail and express trains. I for one was sad to see the REA Company disappear. It was an important part of growing up for me as I can remember picking up live baby chicks that had arrived by train in the morning for our farm. Not sure where they were shipped from now that is many years ago. And I am finding as i get older I suffer from CRS more every day. There was a very good soft cover book put out a few years ago on REA and it can probably be found on Ebay or one of the used book dealers.
It is my understanding UPS was founded by two retuning GI's from WW II in one of thems garage and the rest as they say is history. In one month UPS handles more packages than the United States Post Office does in a year. And loses less packages than the United States Post Office as well.
Al - in - Stockton
....I too fondly remember the REA system for years past.
Now our UPS and FED EX system do a great job too.
On the baby chicks from poster above....They used to ship them in via the post office to our small home town in Pennsylvania {may have come part way by REA}, and I remember large flat boxes with small round holes for the live chicks. Had water containers, etc...in the boxes for them. We're talking late 30's and into the 40's.
al-in-chgo wrote:REA lasted well into the Sixties IIRC. It might even have overlapped UPS by a couple of years.
It lasted until the fall of 1974. The first Altair 8800 shipped from MITS to Popular Electronics got lost when REA finally went under - the second one shipped was on the January 1975 cover of said magazine.
passengerfan wrote: It is my understanding UPS was founded by two retuning GI's from WW II in one of thems garage and the rest as they say is history. In one month UPS handles more packages than the United States Post Office does in a year. And loses less packages than the United States Post Office as well. Al - in - Stockton
Hopefully this isn't too , but UPS is even older than that, I was surprised to find. This is from "About Us" at ups dot com:
Company HistoryFounded in 1907 as a messenger company in the United States, UPS has grown into a $42.6 billion corporation by clearly focusing on the goal of enabling commerce around the globe. Today UPS is a global company with one of the most recognized and admired brands in the world. We have become the world's largest package delivery company and a leading global provider of specialized transportation and logistics services. Every day, we manage the flow of goods, funds, and information in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.More UPS History
I myself first became aware of UPS around 1970; unsurprisingly, about the time of the deterioration of the Post Office's Parcel Post service.
mudchicken wrote:REA had pool reefers and conventional boxcars w/ high speed trucks. One of each reside at the Colorado railroad museum. They could be found in railroad freight and passenger service. Many of the insulated reefers found their way to San Luis Central RR in Colorado used to haul potatoes. They are pretty well gone now, retired due to AAR age restrictions. (Plenty have been seen cut up for scrap at Monte Vista/Sugar Junction) ... Lots have become barns and other outbuildings in the San Luis Valley.
MC, the two cars I saw when I was out at the Museum with you and Chris (SLC 219 and 247) were ex-REX 7645 and 7451, respectively--both from the same series of reefers. I don't recall any REA Express box cars, though some of the reefers were rebuilt without the ice bunkers by SLC.
In what certainly had to be a questionable move (at least in hindsight), Railway Express bought a thousand of these reefers in about 1957 (REX 6900-7899). These replaced all but a few hundred of the other cars owned or leased by Railway Express; what was left of those few hundred eventually (before 1970) were returned to their lessors--Western Fruit Express, Santa Fe, and Chicago Freight Car Leasing. The CFC cars were a story unto themselves--they were built as U.S. Army troop sleepers for World War II, and one could see the outlines where the windows once were.
The remaining cars from the 1000 "new" reefers were apparently leased to various railroads in about 1970. Those leased to Penn Central were relettered PREX, those leased to C&O-B&O were relettered OREX, and those leased to the Milwaukee Road were relettered SREX. All of the cars, under whatever lettering, vanished by 1974. I know of three companies that got these cars and ran them for a while, but the vast majority--up to 500 of them--went to the San Luis Central (SLC series 200-699; some later rebuilt to RB [bunkerless] cars and renumbered into the 700-899 series).
As MC stated, all are too old to be operated in interchange service any more.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
Al
Thanks for the real history of the UPS system. I really enjoyed reading it.
jimrice4449 wrote:Most non-refrigerated REA shipmments were carried in RR owned baggage/express and/or box/express cars and most participating RRs stenciled "Railway Express Agency" as part of the standard lettering scheme for these cars.
IIRC there is an example of such a car, in classic Great Northern colors, at the rail museum at Duluth MN.
REA was a joint venture owned by the major railroads, and every passenger depot had an REA facility. Some of the saddest pictures from the World Wars are caskets being unloaded from a REA baggage car in some little town somewhere.
Hi,
Thanks to everyone, as I had hoped, some great information. Will look at some of the museum websites.
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