I have been looking for some photographic evidence to show that NYC boxcars ventured beyond the Mississippi. I’ve seen photos of Penn RR, Erie, and B&O boxcars in San Bernardino. I’m modelling the Santa Fe in the mid-1950s.
I’d like to know when the blue-green paint scheme superseded the brown boxcar paint. Was it blue, was it green, or is it the ageing of both the paint and the photographic emulsions that gives the impression that there could have been more than one paint specification?
I’d also like to know whether cars painted with the ‘Pacemaker’ slogan, whether brown, or the red and grey type, went off the NYC system. I had an idea that they may have been reserved specifically for the ‘Pacemaker’ service, at least, in the first instance.
The paint is jade green Floquil / Polly S both make “New York Central Jade Green” paint. It’s pretty close to the jade green used by Great Northern at the same time (starting around 1960-62). I’m sure the paint changed over time as it weathered.
NYC was a huge railroad, and it’s cars could be found really anywhere in the U.S., even out to the west coast. NYC connected with the Santa Fe in Chicago, so I’m sure many cars of manufactured goods coming from the east were forwarded west on the Santa Fe in the fifties.
I believe the red and gray “Pacemaker” cars were designed for a specific service / train so they wouldn’t be as likely to be seen off the railroad, but in later years (post 1968) I suspect they would be used in general freight service throughout the U.S.
Auto parts from the Great Lakes States to California assembly plants was a major business for the NYC, and travelled in NYC boxcars. Prior to autoracks, finished autos travelled in NYC boxcars, too.
The NYC had one of the largest boxcar fleets in the US. While I can’t point you at any specific pictures, I can assure you that NYC boxcars traveled all through the US and Canada (as did the boxcars of all the large class 1 railroads).
Many thanks for the posts above. That really was a rapid response.
I had suspected that to see boxcars of the NYC beyond the mid-continent would not have been that unusual, and I am pleased that I now know some of the goods they would have possibly been transporting.
With the info that the paint was jade-green, I Googled searched and found this document on NYC boxcars. As it appears to possibly be the summary of lecture notes given by Jeff English, and therefore is copyrighted, I have only provided a link to it, but it is well worth reading for the history of amalgamations, reporting marks, paint schemes etc. Now I know that jade-green rolling stock does not fit my modelling period as I has set myself a cut-off date of May 1956, and I am sticking with that. Anyway, I am pleased that I found it, and I hope you also find it of interest.
NYC box cars were (too) commonly seen in central California, as well as its baggage cars. I always wondered why NYC rolling stock was “over represented” in my neighborhood in mid-20th century.
In one of Ian Wilsons excellent series of books on CNR branchlines in southern Ontario in the 1950s, there’s a photo of a NYC smooth-sided baggage car in a very small town near Owen Sound. I doubt that it was a mail storage car, but it may have been lcl. The caption makes no reference to the car, but the accompanying text does note that this area shipped fish (packed with ice in boxes) to New York City, although not likely enough to merit the use of a whole car. The train of which the car was part did run all the way to Hamilton, Ontario, where there was a direct connection to the NYC via the TH&B. NYC passenger cars (and locos) were a common sight on the TH&B, owned jointly by the CPR and NYC.
Thanks for that information, Mark. I was unaware of that feature, but it’s useful to know. I recently built a couple of “fish cars” for my '30s-era layout, using Athearn wood reefers as the starting point. I scratchbuilt new wood ends, and a new “metal-sheathed” roof, eliminating the roof hatches at the same time. The fishbelly [swg] underframe is from an Athearn flatcar, with the cars supposedly insulated but not cooled. They’re intended for iced fish in wooded boxes and/or milk in large cans, both in lcl lots.
I model a freelanced railroad over which the NYC has trackage rights so I run lots of NYC equipment. Like you, mine is set in 1956 although I’m not specific about the month. The foliage dictates it is late spring through the summer. I have some of the jade green box cars and have no problem running them even though I know my layout predates them. I figure if I can invent fictional places, I can move a paint scheme up a few years. One of the joys of being a freelancer.
My original enquiry was prompted by the fact that, modelling in 2-rail O Scale, I realised that Atlas O didn’t produce a basic, bog-standard, brown boxcar for the New York Central. There are plenty of Pennsylvania RR cars to chose from, but the only three for the NYC that I’ve been able to find are all special runs done for AM Hobbies. All are branded with a ‘Pacemaker’ logo, two in the red and grey scheme, and the most recent in boxcar brown. I had been hoping for a plain old regular boxcar, but it is often the unusual that gets manufactured, and in this instance I believe this is the case. Well, I’ll wait a while, as I like the stuff that Atlas makes, and most other brands can’t compare.
The reason my cut-off date is May 1956 is because that was the month my AT&SF GP-9 was delivered, and I don’t want it weathered, so I just say that it is fresh from the paint shop. I’m not going to stick to that as a hard and fast rule; like you, I shall run what appeals to me, but I like the actual models to be true. I’ll run them out-of-context if I chose to do so, but I hate anything that purports to be something it isn’t, especially when a manufacturer has produced a foobie, but doesn’t tell us. I agree, it has to be fun or it’s pointless.