Info on REA

LSmith wrote: Can anyone supply onfo on REA or know of historical group I can contact? snipped-for-privacy@aol.com

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Northeast Rails:

Britannica Encyclopedia:

Bill Bill's Railroad Empire N Scale Model Railroad: History of N Scale: Links to over 700 helpful sites:

LSmith wrote: Can anyone supply onfo on REA or know of historical group I can contact? snipped-for-privacy@aol.com

----------------------------------------------------- Here's an inexpensive book, "Ten Turtles to Tucumcari: A personal History of the Railway Express Agency":

Bill Bill's Railroad Empire N Scale Model Railroad: History of N Scale: Links to over 700 helpful sites:

Funny Bill should mention it, but Toby Smith, who transcribed the material and is listed as co-author, was at the Albuquerque GATS this past weekend flogging the book for University of New Mexico Press and I bought a copy from him. (I always tell my retired librarian-wife that train shows are a serious literary excursion.)

After a hard two days of playing with my trains in public I didn't get much reading done before I nodded off each night, but what I read is quite enjoyable and a hoot to boot.

The book is the life reminisces of retired REA executive Klink Garrett who grew up from a part-time irregular to national VP. It provides an anecdotal insider's view of the company during the 1930's to the 1960s. The book is short on modeler's specifics such as which shade of green and red to use on trucks and what month which Camel's cigarettes ad graced the sides of the trucks, but it does contain a wealth of operational information about the express business in general and The Railway Express Agency in Particular, including its history and various incarnations.

I think the next building for the layout will be the Walther's REA warehouse, built with a little more attention and care than I had originally intended.

Richard Albuquerque Richard Albuquerque