I was wondering if anyone could give me some information about the NYC Pacemaker service. When did this servcie start? Where did it run from/to?
Was it a dedicated train or just some cars? I have seen a caboose painted in the red and grey scheme but not in any pictures just on ebay. Was that authentic or just a modelers idea? If it was dedicated service, did only certain locomotives pull it? I have seen cars painted in both brown and the red and grey colors, were they both authentic colors? Which was first?
Anything else anyone knows that I didn’t think to ask would be interesting to learn.
Thanks.
Chris
MEC568:
You’ve asked a bunch of questions I’ve been wondering about for some time. Maybe we’ll get some answers on this forum.
The only thing positive that I can offer is that I think NYC’s Pacemaker Service, B&O’s Sentinel Service, and PRR’s ??? service were offered at about the same time. I’m pretty sure they were guaranteed overnight LCL service between major cities on their respective roads.
As to certain locomotives handling these trains, I would guess that the best available power would have been used – Mohawks in the case of the Central.
Chuck
There’s a much reproduced photo showing a nice shiny Mohawk w/ a solid train of Pacemaker cars but I think the cars were usually mixed in w/ manifest trains. There were cabooses in the red & grey. They were wood sheathed w/ plywood sides rather than the more common planks. It might well be that the NYC ran them in dedicated trains (as the SP Overnights were) but there are loads of pix of that era (1945-1955 or so) showing them mixed in regular frts. Maybe some serious NYC fans can give us the straight skinny.
In the just published NYC Color Guide (Morning sun) there is a section on “Pacemaker” . !946 - cars numbered 175000-175999 , white lettering, had no dimensional data , were not supposed to go off line. In the 50’s lettering on the gray was changed to black.
In '48-49 another 1000 cars were added - 168000-168999 painted freight car red with white pacemaker lettering. Last, 25 PS-1s with full pacemaker paint - 175000175024. The pacemaker plan was dropped during the 50’s but many cars lasted a long time before being repainted. The caboose picture is on p. 108. Pacemaker paint was also applied to trucks and tow tractors in the yards.
The picture dates from when the cars first came out. NYC ran an entire train of the red&white boxcars for a promotional movie. The narrator notes that shortly after, they could be found all over the country in interchange service. I saw a clip as part of a video entitled “The Water Level Route” - borrowed from my local club.
Andrew
So where are the pics?
Here’s one I turned up in a very cursory scan of FallenFlags.org: http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/nyc/nyc175608ajs.jpg
This one is particularly interesting in that it shows both the original white lettering and the later black lettering mentioned above by jsoderq. Now THAT is a great weathering job! [swg]
Chuck
Deasr Friends,
I did do some Pacemaker surveying myself and was greatly helped by both the NYC histrorical society and the NMRA Kalmbach Library. What I learned is that the Pacemaker freightservice came shortly after the successful Pacemaker passenger serivce and was meant te regaine some truckloads into the boxcars. They ran as a unit train picking up other Pacemaker cars en route. I will look up the routes and be back
My HO Pacemaker train is build up with 4 F7’s (should be right says the NYCHS) and some 20+ boxcars mostly in grey and red but also in brwon. The brown ones weren’t supposed to leave teh NYC rails. For a caboose in Pacemaker colors (there were 5 of them) its best to kitbash one. Only Cooper and Oshtemo had painted one ever but this wasn’t exactly true, although it is “good enough” for me.
I’ll be back…
Gert
Gert
[#welcome]
to the forum but I gotta ask: where is NL?
I suspect the two uses of the Pacemaker name was intentional; i.e., the passenger train name would draw attention to the freight service name. That’s the way a lot of things were done in those days; particularly on the Central.
Are you sure it was the brown cars that weren’t supposed to leave NYC rails? I always thought it was the red and grey cars that were in ‘captive service’.
Chuck
Chuck,
“NL” usually indicates Netherlands
Andrew
masonjar:
I was going to guess Netherlands but though I might not be being very PC. [sigh]
Chuck
Friends, including Chuck,
NL indeed means Netherlands. I am a Conrail guy and when looking at the backgrounds of CR I automatically stumble into some Pacemaker items. And I liked it. To be honest, the basic form of the service appealed to me and so did the cars.
Back to the topic. I cheched my info and listen to this.
Pacemaker unit trains (up to 50 or 60 cars) ran from New York to Buffalo and vice versa picking up and setting out some cars on the way. Only a few stops off course. Later a service from Boston to Buffalo vice versa came in action. Later again even other Big Four cities were on the roster, but not always in unittrains. All of the cars were intented to stay on the NYC rails so they didn’t get their AAR data painted on, but it couldn’t be avoided that some cars in the end appeared all over the continent. So from the early 50’s all cars received AAR data on their grey skin, first in white, later in black.
The Morning Sun book NYC equipment #2 has a fine page dedicated to the Pacemaker service, but for the ultimate info contact the NMRA Library. You’ll get lot’s of info and even a how-to-make-your-Pacemakercar-a-super-one article. For me that’s too much, the models once sold by MDC Roundhouse (now Athearn-a twelvepack), Accurail (a threepack), Intermountain (3 threepacks), Athearn and Trix are all provided with numbers from various moments in the life of these cars. That is just good enough for me.
Wouldn’t it be a great story item, about how innovative this service was, if it was? Whose idea it was, who organised the thing and who called it off and why? Would the man whose idea it was have gotten any idea that we are now, some 50 years after the break up, are talking about “his” cars in this fashion?
Have a great weekend you all
Gert
Hi Gert,
Great information, thanks.
My sister lives in Bilthoven, just west of Utrecht.
I’m trying to get my brother-in-law to get “into” trains, so far he’ll only do train watching if I’m around.
Chris
Gert:
Great research. [bow] Isn’t the web a wonderful thing?!?
I’m pretty sure the Pacemaker Service was limited to LCL shipments and the setouts and pickups you’re talking about were cars destined for or collected from large freight stations.
I worked for NYC and then PC in the early 70s and I can’t imagine them handling this sort of thing any other way. If the Pacemaker train itself were to try to switch freight stations en route, they would have been days instead of hours between terminals. There would probably also have been some pretty serious union objections to the through crews doing any local switching.
Can anybody else confirm my guesses on Pacemaker operations? Were B&Os Sentinal Service and SP’s Overnights similar operations? And what was the name of the PRR service? (I remember seeing pictures of PRR’s special paint jobs but I can’t remember the name they used.)
Chuck
I think PRR called their lcl service “Merchandise Service”.
Doug
If I remember correctly from one of the intermodal histories that I read was that NYC Pacemaker Service, PRR’s Merchandise Service, SP’s Overnight and B&O’s Sentinel Service were more or less built on the same idea. Overnight service between city pairs with truck door-to door delivery at each end.
Most likely the cars(personally I like the the NYC and B&O cars) were painted more as a marketing hook than anything else.
I would think that the demise of the service had more to do with the rise of the third party freight forwarders(today they are called IMC’s–intermodal marketing companies) such as Hub City(now Hub Group) and C.H. Robinson.
The advent of regular trailer on flatcar(TOFC) in 1955 and NYCs’ Flex i Van Service may also have contributed to the service ending.
Early intermodal/LCL is a fascinating era to research. In my time I have found out the more than van trailers moved by rail. Besides reefers from California, there were flatbeds of steel from Pittsburgh, and tankers from petroleum producing areas too.
Re: Passenger Service - If memory serves, I used to ride the Pacemaker all-coach “express” from NYC to SouthBend, IN, when travelling to and from college in the mid-50s (the train continued to Chicago, of course). Over a 4-yr period, the quality of the service declined. I recall one conductor telling me that he thought that the rr was intentionally degrading service in order to discourage ridership and justify abandoning passenger service.
Cris
Looking at the answers You rec’d about the Pacemaker frt (Trains NC-1 West & BN-2 east) I have the following information for what it’s worth.
I was a N Y C fireman in the 50’s,when made up the “PACEMAKER” in the west side yards of New York City.It usually ran 50 to 60 cars With one of the 5 hacks rebuilt & painted to match the train.My memories are almost 50 years old ,but I remember pretty clearly these details.
In the late 40’s & early 50’s it left N Y about 6pm behind a pair of R-2 electric motors that were changed to an L-3 or L-4 Mohawk at Harmon for the rest of the trip to Buffalo.
As diesels Arrived they replaced steam at Harmon.
As more arrived they ran through to N Y doing away with the engine change at Harmon.
Two items not mentioned were that the first 1000 cars were #,d in the 174000 series, not to be sent off line.Red & gray with white lettering no dimention lettering.
Also not mentioned was that they had 2 air hoses for hi-speed brakes & h- speed trucks for 60 MPH speed with 60 cars or less.
Tomtully
The Pacemaker, SP Overnights and other similar services were all part of railroading’s last big push for the LCL trade. Forwarders, consolidators and TOFC probably all played a part in LCL’s demise.
It’s interesting to note that when C&NW dropped free pick-up and delivery for LCL shipments, the traffic dried up almost completely.
Tom:
[#welcome]
to the forum and thanks for the info. You confirmed a lot of things that I was guessing. It’s much better to hear the details from someone who was there.
Some more questions for you (or anyone who knows): I’m assuming the train was blocked leaving the West Side yard. Do you remember how many blocks or their destinations? Were cars picked up or set out at intermediate stations? And what was the final destination?
Chuck