I am just curious, I noticed on the cover of the latest Classic Trains has a photo of a Conrail diesel pulling a freight train around 1977. Some of cars are Penn Central (as I would expect) but one of box cars still has its original NYC lettering. I was wondering how long the freight cars of the original components of Penn Central remained in their original colors and lettering?
ndbprrThere are still a few cars with PRR reporting marks. One is a steel hauling gondola in dedicated service between Inland Steel and New Carlisle Indiana
When the assets of Conrail were allocated to NS and CSX during the "split" many of the CR reporting marks were stenciled with NYC or PRR, some of the locomotives even had small keystones under the cab number, until the equipment could be absorbed into their respective new owners' rosters.
I had typed six more paragraphs here and the forum software made it disappear so I'll add more later!
http://www.conrail.com/history/
Regards, Ed
DRfan I am just curious, I noticed on the cover of the latest Classic Trains has a photo of a Conrail diesel pulling a freight train around 1977. Some of cars are Penn Central (as I would expect) but one of box cars still has its original NYC lettering. I was wondering how long the freight cars of the original components of Penn Central remained in their original colors and lettering?
All freight cars doesn't get repainted so,many could have last years into CR before they was retired or rebuilt with new paint.
The last oringinal PC car I recall seeing was a 50' jade green gon way back in 1998 in Marion..
Larry
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Thanks everyone for the information!
You didn't mention E-L but,since it was part of CR I will add this tidbit before its slips my mine again. I seen E-L open hoppers as late as 2003.
I have pix I took in 2013 of 3 PC hoppers. They carry private reporting marks but otherwise they were still in PC green (or what was left of it) along with full PC lettering and "mating worms" PC logos. The reporting marks were RMFX. In the past few years I have seen rather well preserved B&O Capitol dome logos on some beat up gondolas. It is probably impossible to repaint all rolling stock, especially older freight cars that go in and out of storage as needed. Of course, locomotives are the premier corporate symbols that everyone sees, thus they usually get repainted relatively quickly.
While off topic this shows what one may see while railfaning.
While lettered for a private company this old NP car was still earning a living in 2005. Seen at Marion on the CSX/NS interchange track.
I was still seeing genuine PRR flatcars on the C&NW in the late 1980s. I think they were used as idler cars because the decks were badly deteriorated but they were fully PRR reporting marks and lettering.
Dave Nelson
It should be noted that their were a few PC Hoppers that were painted hastily in Conrail's oxide red Scheme that have shed most of their Oxide red and are in jade Green.
There was a jade green coil car stranded in captive service at the ARMCO/AK Steel mill in Butler PA well past 2000. I'd always thought it was NYC through its decayed lettering, but now I'm suspecting it was actually P&LE. It definitely was not PC. Too many letters on there.
DavidH66 It should be noted that their were a few PC Hoppers that were painted hastily in Conrail's oxide red Scheme that have shed most of their Oxide red and are in jade Green.
In the case of the gon it was no fade out paint..It was jade green with Penn-Central and the PC logo. For its age it was faded but, still in decent shape.
I suspect newer cars lasted longer in their original paint. Older cars coming in for major shop work after the merger would probably be repainted for CR at that time. A new car NYC built in say 1967 might go quite a few years before needing any major work, so might not be in CR paint for quite a while after the merger. I know there were still "Big Sky Blue" GN cars from 1967-8-9 in service in original paint and lettering in 1990.
wjstixGN cars from 1967-8-9 in service in original paint and lettering in 1990.
How about this Big Sky Blue GN car in 2005. It was coupled to the NP car and was also lettered for a private company.
I've seen some stock in Conrail and Southern paint in the yard on the west side of Cleveland.
I480 and I77, I think Rockport yard?
Modeling the Cleveland and Pittsburgh during the PennCentral era starting on the Cleveland lakefront and ending in Mingo junction
Both Reading and Erie Lackawanna had relatively large numbers of new, rebuilt or otherwise freshly shopped hopper cars prior to Conrail. As such, I saw Reading and E-L hoppers in Conrail freight trains well into the 2000's...maybe at a rate of only 2 or 3 Reading hoppers per every 100 car coal train...but they were still out there.
One thing about Southern and as far as that goes N&W cars they are so common on NS I no longer pay that much attention to them unless the N&W car has the "Hamburger" herald. There's tons of SP cars still in service. I seen a Blue with black door B&M car around 3 years ago.
Pennsy and NYC lasted many years after their mergers. When I was doing some photographing in the 90's and the early 2000's I saw them on a regular basis it seemed.
Cars that were in Auto Parts service, very seldom got repainted unless they went in for major repairs. As the assembly plants needed the parts on schedule the cars from the parts plants were in fast turn around service from the parts plants to the assembly plants and time did not allow for them to get repainted. And the PRR & NYC were big players in the Auto Parts service.
Rick J
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BRAKIE One thing about Southern and as far as that goes N&W cars they are so common on NS I no longer pay that much attention to them unless the N&W car has the "Hamburger" herald. There's tons of SP cars still in service. I seen a Blue with black door B&M car around 3 years ago.
I live near an NS line and I'd say it's about even on the NS and SOU stuff, I think NW stuff is slightly more rare and tends to only be covered hoppers.