My Grandfather, Marcus Earle Tuten, was employed by American Railway Express Company from 1920 to 1948 in Jacksonville, Florida. I don't truly understand the relationship between this agency and ACL and SAL. Is there a connection? We are railroad modelers (N Scale) and want to represent the railroad that most closely is associated with my grandfather's employer in Jacksonville.

Thank you for your time. This information is means a lot to me! -Barbara

-- Barbara Lamb (eve@adelphia.net), July 18, 2000

Answers

I am reluctant to dispute such an authority as Paul Harvey, but American Railway Express Co. did NOT, become American Express. Rather, the actual package-hauling and delivery services of the American Express Co. became part of American Railway Express in 1918, along with those of Adams, Southern, and Wells, Fargo & Co. American Railway Express, in turn, became the Railway Express Agency around 1929 or so. This information is contained in several books, one of which is the history of American Express published in the early 1950's by Alden Hatch, as well as a later history published in the 1990's. My copies of these books are in storage at present, or I'd be able to give more precise citations.

Hope this helps.

Bob Hanson

-- Robert H. Hanson (RHanson669@aol.com), July 22, 2000.

Barbara, Micro-Tains is coming out with a new 52'-2" N-Scale Railway Express Agency Reefer. Should be available this fall. Check their web site for details, www.micro-trains.com. According to Paul Harvey's "The Rest of Story", American Railway Express Company became the American Express Company, "the card that you want leave home without".

-- Carey Stevens (cstevens@webzone.net), July 18, 2000.

American Railway Express Co. was formed about World War I from a number of predecessor express companies. ARECo became Railway Express Agency in 1929, and was owned, but seperately operated, by 86 railroad companies including the ACL and SAL. It went out of business in November 1975, by which time only 10% of it's traffic went by rail, the rest was by truck or plane. ARECo/REA were in the package express business, similar to current day UPS or FedEx. Generally, ARECo/REA packages were shipped by passenger train which is the reason there were "baggage" cars lettered for the express company. There were also combination cars which were part express, part railway post office and part luggage, or any combination of those. Since both ACL and SAL, as well as Florida East Coast, carried Railway Express parcels, you can model REA cars for any of those RRs.

-- Tom Underwood (tlunder@attglobal.net), July 18, 2000.