Were the NYC “Pacemaker,” B&O “Sentinal” and “Timesaver” box cars ever used in general service or for LCL service? I saw a photo of a red and grey Pacemaker box car on a car-float in NY Harbor, evidently enroute to delivery of its contents. Also, were the Buffalo Creek box cars used only for flour service? How was the flour shipped and to where (warehouses, bakeries)?
Thanks for any help anyone can provide.
TRNJ
When these services were new, they cars were NOT used for general service, nor were they used for general LCL service. They were assigned to special trains that ran ONLY between two city terminals (Chicago to NYC, etc). But once the railroads dropped that specialty service, the cars were thrown into the general freight car pool. So what service these cars performe is date-specific: if you’re modeling the 1950s, chances ae that those cars should only be used in dedicated service. Model the 1960s, and they’re just plain old boxcars with once-flash paint jobs.
I don’t know specifically about the BC&G boxcars, but before the days of the PS-3 covered hopppers, flour was shipped either bagged or loose in boxcars. If a car was to be used only for shipping flour, it usually had “FLOUR SERVICE ONLY” stencilled next to the doors.
Add the PRR Mechandise Service to the list also. All were an effort by railroads to retain LCL traffic and ultimaqtely all failed. I doubt if youn would have seen a freshly painted one in anything but LCL service but as time went on and varying degrees of service deterioration occurred I would say you should be able to find some pictures. By the way the operating people on most of the railroads hated the idea since it required them to prioritise these cars and added to their headaches. The Ad types thought it was brilliant since they came up with the idea.
orsonroy…the Buffalo Creek RR was not the same as the Buffalo Creek & Gauley RR. Both were shortlines but not related or connected except by gauge!
Roger
Was flour really shipped loose in boxcars??? Genuine Q not a criticism. If it was shipped loose did they line the cars with cardboard or paper? Was this changed each trip? Flour is awful stuff to handle loose both in itself and for everywhere it gets and contamination problems… both of the flour and everything else.
Incidentally one post above seems to say “No way LCL” while another says “Yes” to LCL… would it be reasonable to conclude that some RR / paint schemes were NOT LCL while others were LCL? OR… the same RR did different things at different times?