Railway Express Agency

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Railway Express Agency (REA) was a rail express service, at one point the only one in the United States. Originally the American Railway Express Agency, founded on March 29, 1839, its name was changed in 1927. By 1917 there were seven express companies in the United States, they were consolidated into one, the American Railway Express Agency during the First World War. REA began an Air Express Division in 1927. The company filed for bankruptcy in 1975. The Railway Express Agency operated a Chicago, Illinois-based refrigerator car line beginning in the early 1900s. REA concentrated on express refrigerator service from 1940 on, and continued to expand its fleet of express reefers until the mid- to late-1950s, when business declined dramatically due to the increase in refrigerated motor truck shipments. By 1965 many of REA's reefers were in lease service as bulk mail carriers (stripped of their refrigeration equipment); many ended their days relegated to work train service.