Customer Reviews

Ten Turtles to Tucumcari: A Personal History of the Railway Express Agency

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I met Klink Garrett, inspiration and co-author of "Ten Turtles to Tucumcari," the other day. My family had given me a copy of Klink's newly published book for my birthday in December, and the next month Klink was available for book signing at the Western Heritage Center in Spearfish, South Dakota. After convincing the gate-keeper that I was not there for the Western Christmas show, he let me through with my copy of the book to see Klink, assuring me that he would find me if I infiltrated the show-goers to collect the $10 entry fee. Klink gladly signed the copy of his book that I thrust at him and bade me sit at his table and talk for a while. He pulled out another book that he wanted me to see-a looseleaf binder containing dozens and dozens of railroad passes issued to him as an official of the Railway Express Agency by, I think, every railroad in the nation. I looked on passes issued by the Frisco, the Santa Fe, the Union Pacific, the New York Central, the Pennsy, the Texas and Pacific, the Burlington, the Chicago and Northwestern, the Penn Central, and on and on. I was sitting in front of a man who had a personal acquaintance with railroads that I know only through their published histories and by modern toy trains painted in their images.

In "Ten Turtles to Tucumcari," Garrett tells the story of his employment with the Railway Express Agency, adding on to that an historical overview of the express industry in America, including REA's several predecessors such as Wells-Fargo and the Pony Express, and how they merged one by one finally to form the preeminent express company in the nation until changing fortunes snuffed out its final breath in 1979.

Dry facts and statistics bore me to death, and I fear that, all too often, that's what the word "history" connotes to students. In this book, however, Garrett gives us the history of one of the most influential businesses in America as he saw it as an employee, first at the grass-roots level and finally at corporate headquarters. We get to understand the corporate climate of REA by seeing it in action through Garrett's eyes, not by having him lecture us on it. Of course, quite a few anecdotes of unusual shipments and strange customers appear here and there to really enliven the narrative. I'll chuckle for a long time over the shipment of Mexican burros that ate one another's destination tags from their necks! And let's not forget the story of how Klink Garrett got his name-but I'm not going to give that story away here!

There will be readers who say that this is nothing but another American autobiography. You know the genre: Young man works hard, makes good. It is that indeed, but how else could the Railway Express Agency have become the successful, influential, entrepreneurial company it was had it not been for employees like that young man who worked hard and made good? Garrett's personal history goes a long way toward explaining the company's success. Incidentally, this is not a whitewash of the company either, for Garrett's book does not ignore the internal problems that helped bring about REA's demise nor its abysmal sexual and racial bigotry through the 1960's. I found it to be a quite comprehensive view of the company, especially for being only 172 pages long.

If you have an interest in American history, American railroads, the transportation industry, or in stories of young men working hard and making good, you will enjoy "Ten Turtles to Tucumcari." I just wish Klink could have told us what was in those lead-lined REA express cars procured for doing business with the Atomic Energy Commission!

I can recommend this book as an enjoyable read but bear in mind it's really just one man's biography and even then it is pretty skimpy about his executive years. Plenty of detail about his beginnings in small towns running solo REA offices and he throws in some background about how REA was formed from predecessors. But anyone looking for a complete story of REA will have to look elsewhere. That's a shame as that is sort of what the co-author promised in the forward.

I would like to know more about how REA actually worked. There's nothing in this book, for example, about what happened to something once it was put on a train. I presume there were sorting facilities but how did that work, particularly among the various railroads using different stations. If you sent something from NYC to LA and it came into Chicago over one RR line, how was it decided what line it would travel to LA on since several went there? And how did they move things among stations (Chicago had 6 big stations)? How were trucks and planes integrated into the system as passenger trains declined?

I'd like to know more about why REA isn't with us today as something like UPS. Poor management, over-regulation, malfeasance...I understand all played roles. Very little about that in this book except the briefest mentions of some indictments and that the government ordered airlines to sever contracts with REA (but no explanation as to why).

Again, it's a fun read but if you are interested in REA you won't learn much here.

Besides being a captivating and charming study of one man's career, this book reveals-in detail-how an American institution slipped into oblivion. Railway Express died because of a total lack of creative vision on the corporate side, outright greed, and an idiotic failure to anticipate or be flexible with this country's changing transportation system. It's hard to believe that REA in the 1950s did not make fortification plans for the obvious decline of passenger railroads, and thus move in another direction. But as Garrett and Smith make completely clear here, the company was too busy enjoying the good life and resting on its laurels as a highly respected organization to be bothered with such thoughts.
"Ten Turtles to Tucumcari"-terrific title, by the way-ought to be required reading by CEOs-to-be everywhere. Its message of what can happen to a company whose blind executives believe that a business landscape will never change is frightening and enormously instructive. I loved it.

This was a fantastic book about the Railway Express Agency as told by a man who worked his way up from floor sweeper to a member of the board of directors. I learned a tremendous amount about the REA, grandfather to UPS and FedEx, but Mr. Klink Garrett's personal story of hard work and dedication to a career was just as interesting. A must for any railfan, model railroader or historian. If you want to learn what it means for America to be the "Land of Opportunity", buy this book.

Ten Turtles to Tucumcari is the only published information on this historically important company. The author's mid-to-almost-upper level management view provides insights as to why REA failed, however, those insights do not address the close relationship between REA and US government. The book fits nicely with several REA items in my collection.

Ten Turtles To Tucumcari: A Personal History Of The Railway Express Agency is a very personal history of the Railway Express Agency comes from a man who spent much of his life in a national sales position with REA coordinating the transit needs of the Defense Department. His story combines ethics and business savvy with an account of the company's decline and the demise of the nation's railroads.

A great story about an American legion that died: Railroad Express Agency REA. I could not put the book down. A story about American history and the death of one of the greatest American companies in the 21 Century.

This thin book was even thinner on the late days of the Railway Express Agency. I was tickled at the detail Klink Garrett gave for his early years, but this detail was skipped after his move up the corporate ladder. I think they spent themselves into oblivion and nobody seemed to care. Did they fall, or were they pushed? Did Klink help or hinder? I couldn't tell and Klink didn't either. Still, it was an interesting story about a big company that just up and disappeared.