I’m plan to include several REA Express freight houses on my layout and would like to model them as close as possible with regard to the rail and truck traffic. I know that REA was required to ship anything and would like to know what cars were in their fleet. I have never seen anything but REA reefers and I’m looking for some N Scale models of other types of cars. Are there reference sources for other types of cars or is there a company that sells them?
Does anyone know what happened to their fleet after the end of REA? I was wondering if they might have been used by the new owners for some time before being repainted.
I don’t know a whole lot about it myself, but I do think that the REA (later REX) also had express boxcars. I think they were 50-60 foot, but somewhere I remember seeing a model of a 40 foot REA boxcar. REA also had heavyweight baggage cars, and also had space in most combines and were lettered for them.
Most of my reasearch, if you can call it that, was by subscribing to and reading MR and some of the other model RR mags over the past 40 years or so. So most of my information has been gained by osmosis.
Mr C used to market N-Scale express boxcars lettered for Railway Express; I picked up a couple about ten or fifteen years ago at a GATS but they were out of production even then and I don’t think he has ever put them back into production.
Most of REA traffic was on the railroads’ baggage cars, although the REA did have a sizeable fleet of express box cars and express reefers capable of passenger-train speeds. My presumption is that shipments between large centers of commerce were by REA boxes and reefers, as well as RR’s baggage cars, but the usual town-by-town pick-up and delivery was by the baggage cars at local freight stations. I suggest you purchase DeRouin’s book, Moving Mail and Express by Rail, published by Pixels Publishing.
Since most of the REA cars offered are reefers, did REA have their own cold storage facilities or would these be delivered directly to customers with such facilities.
How would I contact Mr ‘C’, is he a dealer, modeler or manufacturer? Even though he wouldn’t have any, perhaps he can give me some information (photos or?)?
Thanks to one and all, apparently most of the non-refrigerated goods were shipped by the combine baggage/REA cars as I can’t recall seeing any models (N) or even photos of REA box cars. Where might one find photos and other information on these box cars? Any suggestions as to what cars would be suitable for a repaint and REA decaling/lettering?
I want to correct my misstatement regarding express box cars. I’m not aware that REA owned any. All the express box cars I’ve seen lettered for REA were also lettered for the railroad owning the car. I haven’t noted on REA (REX) express box cars in train consist lists either.
Vic Roseman wrote “Railway Express, An Overview” ISBN 0-9612692-5-1, which is a history of the Railway Express Agency, its operations and how to model it.
Virtually all the REA cars they owned were class BR express reefers. Many of them in the 50’s would be rebuilt troop sleepers. The baggage cars and boxcars were not owned by REA, but operated by the individual railroads and stenciled for the REA.
there was an article a while bcak about kitbashing a steel REA reefer by cutting two 40 ft steel reefer bodies and putting them on express trucks (tank the center 30 or so ft including the plug doors from one body and attaching the ends plus 10 ft or so from the other bodies).