When all the Penn Central Freight Cars reach their retirement in the next few years they need to be rounded up to make a typical PC freight train.
I have seen many former PC Freight Cars rolling on the rails with no repainting or minimalist repainting.
It could be done if they find the space for them to be stored and carefully restored.
Andrew
With something from LSBC ?
To be believable, the cars would have to derail while standing still.
It might be even more challenging to get a READING train with a Coil Car, Gondola, Plug-Door Boxcar, and Covered Hopper to name a few of the remaining READING cars that have passed through the area.
Andrew
They would not even need tracks, just set them in the soil anywhere.
Actually, there were a few derailments on the Penn Central line between Kalamazoo and Elkhart.
Andrew
Strange you fellas should mention old freight cars with fallen flag roads still on them. I had seen a Santa Fe box car advertising the “El Capitan” about a week ago and yesterday I saw another Santa Fe car advertising the “Grand Canyon” (train).
Oh, and three Monon cars in a row on CSX last week.
Hahaha! I actually had a Penn Central locomotive derail in my driveway back in the day. It was switching the local Agway at about 5 MPH (practically standing still). Talk about a kid’s wonderland…bring on the hook!
No one seems in any hurry to repaint Southern Railway’s boxcars either, the ones with the green light slogan. THat’s going on thirty-five years now, and I see these cars all the time, whole strings of them sometimes, on the NS between Harrisburg PA and Oak Island NJ.
In Elkhart there are quite a few Penn Central cars and a couple of locomotives there I know one is a double ender, The museum is kinda nice if you’re ever in the area it worth checking out
Rich
The Penn Central Electric Locomotive on display at the National NYC Museum in ELKHART, Indiana is a GG-1 of PRR Heritage.
Norfolk Southern could move the PC 2-Bay Covered Hoppers for Sand Service from yards around the system to Museums and replace them with new Sand Covered Hoppers built by Trinity.
Andrew
Do you have any pictures of said PC equpiment?
More than likely any ex-Penn Central equipment going to museums or rail societies would be restored to “Pre-Penn Central” paint schemes (New York Central, Pennsy, or New Haven).
I’m a PC fan myself as this was the railroad of my childhood and the incredible variety of equipment was neat to see. But realistically we have to remember that the Penn Central was and is still viewed as a railroading business disaster. Penn Central, sadly, was a business model for “How not to run a railroad”.
Some of you over 35 probably remember a book called: “The Wreck of the Penn Central” published in the late 1970s or early 80s.
I read a portion of it. It is thick, and makes for very good reading especially for business students. Local libraries may have copies. Busienss corruption, briberies, deliberate mistreatment of shippers, passengers, and employees are all in there.
A lot of equipment restored at museums or historic sites will be painted back to its original owner on the grounds of authenticity. Since Penn Central had so much Pennsy and New York Central stuff it is probably a correct assumption that little would be painted as PC. Kind of a shame as even this railroad deserves its place in preserved history. After all it is notorious to say the least. Plus it did operate some of the country’s most notable routes during its relatively short existence.
I think that is a great idea to have equipment in PC colors in museums. Why shouldn’t the history of railroads celebrate the failures as well as the successes? Plus, the “interlocking worms” are cool.
Lots of Chessie System equipment appears.
Personally I don’t think it’s a bad idea, but again you have to look at the people involved with many of the railroad restorations that have taken place in the northeast. Most of them would prefer to preserve historical pieces as they appeared “originally”. So, for example, some Pennsy and NYC locomotives survived and made it into Conrail’s paint schemes. But what museum or society would want to restore a unit into Big Blue’s colors even though Conrail turned into a successful railroad?
One candidate that, imho, has “philisophical potential” for restoration in the PC version would be the one Metroliner MU car that’s being restored. Even though the “Metros” were being delivered to the Pennsy and were undergoing testing, by the time they were running in regular service the railroad was actually PC. Add to that, under Amtrak a number of the Metroliner cars retained their Penn Central worms and did not receive Amtrak’s red, white, and blue.
Even so is likely that the restorers would not want the “worms” on the equipment and prefer to see a Pennsy Keystone instead.
Haven’t seen very many former PC cars out this way in Utah. Although I did see a former Eire Lackawanna covered hopper being switched around in Provo. I had to do a double take on that one!
I wouldn’t mind seeing one of those ATSF cars with the avertising for that road’s passenger trains. Any chance that such cars that are still around are more likely to be in MoW service?
The ex-Southern boxcars with the green light advertising show up frequently in Salt Lake City’s UP yards. The one Southern boxcar I hope to get a photo of before it gets repainted or retired is the one (and there’s probably more out there) featuring the fact that the boxcar has special cushioning for a damage free ride for freight.
Well, you have to figure that with more “newer” equipment, more of the merged railroads will find their equipment in museums. Plus, there are now many people for whom railroads like Pennsylvania disappeared before they were born and many even the Penn Central. Personally, the railroads that I remember seeing most in my childhood are Chessie System (the yellow cars with the cats were always memorable), Norfolk Southern (the N&W/Southern merger happened when I was seven,and the town where I grew up was served by the NS - yet I remember the Chessie cars more!), and Milwaukee Road (from visits to my grandparents since they lived near a Milwaukee Road yard). So eventually, the railroad museums are likely to have more related to the merged roads because more of the attendees are going to remember them. Is it really more “authenic” to have a locomotive who spent 1 year with PRR and the majority of time in Penn Central and Conrail paint painted in PRR. Why shouldn’t a locomotive or car delivered new to Penn Central be painted with the worms?
Plus, some of the merged roads (Conrail, Chessie, and Burlington Northern come to mind) had great color schemes that deserve to survive on even after they merged yet again.
By colors you mean black?
Penn Central colors were primarily PC Jade Green and Black.
Lettering was White.
Graphics were Red and White.
Maintenance of Way was Yellow with Black Markings.
Andrew