Broadway Limited has a Hudson due December described as follows
No photo is provided. Can someone tell me what the lettering on the tender of this steam locomotive will look like? Will it say Michigan Central? If it will say NYC, will there be a painted stripe? What makes it a NYC “Line” Michigan Central? Thanks.
In the “classic” era it will be lettered “New York Central Lines”. In the more modern era it will just say “New York Central”.
IIRC there would be a small “M.C.” on the tender, fairly high up. Main lettering would be “New York Central Lines” or later “New York Central System”, later still just “New York Central”.
I recently got the two-book “Steam Locomotives of the New York Central System” set, I’ll check the Michigan Central section out when I get a chance. Seems to me when flipping thru the book that the MC Hudsons did have striping when rec’d in the 20’s, with the “New York Central Lines” lettering and the small “M.C.R.R.”. That striping generally was removed by the early '30’s.
Here’s a link to a pic of an M.C. Hudson in the mid-1930’s…
http://www.railarchive.net/nyccollection/nyc5369.htm
Not long after this, it would have been changed to “NEW YORK CENTRAL SYSTEM” but still have the “M.C.R.R.” lettering.
I’ve never seen any photos of Michigan Central locomotive lettered “NEW YORK CENTRAL SYSTEM”. “SYSTEM” was generally used for P&LE, P&E and CR&I locomotives. Michigan Central went from “NEW YORK CENTRAL LINES” with the sub lettering M.C.R.R. to just NEW YORK CENTRAL ( without the sub lettering ) in roman lettering starting in 1936 - then to gothic.lettering starting around 1940.
It does appear M.C. engines never used the “SYSTEM” lettering. Page 641 of “Steam Locomotives of the New York Central Lines, Vol 2” shows two J-1 Hudsons in the mid-1930’s with “LINES” lettering on the tender, but I couldn’t find any with “SYSTEM”.
However there are also quite a few pictures of P&LE engines with “LINES” lettering from pre-1935 or so. It appears somewhere in the mid-late '30’s there was a change wherein the “LINES” lettering was eliminated. Some subsidiary company’s engines were changed to “NEW YORK CENTRAL” lettering on the tender, while some got the new “NEW YORK CENTRAL SYSTEM” lettering.