NYC Pacemaker service

[jecorbett]

I'm looking at a 1946 NYC publicity photo showing a long unit train of red and gray Pacemaker boxcars being pulled by a Niagra. Were these cars typically run in a unit consist or would they have been mixed in with other priority freight? My online source tells me the NYC originally ran these lcl cars on its NY-Buffalo mainline serving major points in between. Later, a Boston-Buffalo train was added. I have a dozen of these cars in my fleet and wondered whether I should run them in their own train or with other high priority freight cars.

[dti406]

Here is some information from the NYC Headlight, read into it what you want.  One thing I do know about the Pacemaker Cars, PRR's Merchandise Service Cars, and B&O's Sentinel Service cars is they did not have CAPY markings as the cars never left the home road.  These were added as the LCL services ended making the cars free roamers.

 

New York Central Pacemaker Service

Remember the red-and-white diamond herald of the The Pacemaker Service of the New York Central was unique, it was a mix between "head end" and fast freight.
Pacemaker Trains were dedicated to carrying LCL Merchandise. They used specially-marked high-speed freight cars.

In 1946, the NYC offered overnight service between New York and Buffalo via BN-1/NB-2. This overnight service was resurrected after WW II with the name "Pacemaker" although BN-1/NB-2 ran on essentially the same schedule as the pre-War version which was established in 1935-36, but discontinued during the War.

In 1948-49, BB-1/BB-2 was started to serve the B&A. The Boston-Buffalo Pacemaker trains served Boston, Worcester, Springfield, Pittsfield, Albany, Utica, Rochester & Buffalo while the New York Pacemakers served NY, Yonkers, Albany, Utica, Syracuse & Buffalo. The New York & Boston Pacemakers connected at Albany, Utica and Buffalo. Around this time, NB-1/BN-2 also served Cleveland (NB-1 arrived at Collinwood around 1 pm next day, while BN-2 left Collinwood in the early afternoon.)

"Pacemaker Service" was extended beyond the terminal points of NB-1/BB-1/BN-2/BB-2 using "ordinary" freight symbol trains and local freights/yard transfers to reach points such as Watertown, Malone, Montreal, Niagara Falls, Detroit, Jackson, Battle Creek, Kalamazoo, Toledo, Elkhart, South Bend Chicago (Polk Street), Columbus, Springfield, Indianapolis, East St. Louis, Cincinnati & Charleston WV according to NYC's 1951 Merchandise Car Schedule.

By 1957, Pacemaker Service had been dropped, or replaced in kind by Early Bird Service. Hence, PACEMAKER cars became just another boxcar in NYC parlance.

The original Pacemaker cars were green. 200 brown temporary Pacemaker Service cars were added in 1953. These cars also had a star below the herald that indicated the car was supposed to remain on NYC home rails. I am wondering how long these 200 temporary cars remained in Pacemaker service? Also, was the star removed in the mid-to-late 1950's as the boxcar shortage ended, or did the Pacemaker cars keep the star since they were specialized equipment? How effective were the stars on keeping the cars on home rails?

 

Rick

[Sperandeo]

Hello,

The original Pacemaker freight service consisted of LCL merchandise trains NB-1 and BN-2 between New York City and Buffalo. Inaugurated in july 1946, these trains were run as solid consists of the 1,000 specially-equipped red-and-gray Pacemaker cars whenever possible (70 cars or less per train, of course!). This was done to take advantage of the AB-1-B brake equipment installed on these cars, which allowed faster emergency brake applications at high speed.

Steam power was originally used west of Harmon, N.Y., with electric and tri-power locomotives doing the job on the electrified New York City terminal lines. By May 1948, the Pacemakers were dieselized outside the electrified territory.

West of Buffalo, the cars could move in other symbol freights, although in August 1949 the schedule of westbound NB-1 was extended to Collinwood (Cleveland.) Meanwhile symbols BB-1 and BB-2 had been added as Pacemaker trains between Boston and Buffalo in April 1949. 

The Pacemakers were successful, but became less of a premier service when the New York Central instituted its system-wide Early Bird merchandise service at the end of 1954. The introduction of Flexi-Vans in 1957 really put an end to the Pacemakers, as these intermodal vehicles were aimed at the same LCL traffic that the Pacemakers had carried. The Pacemaker boxcars were repainted freight car brown and faded ino the Central fleet.

A detailed account of the Pacemaker freight trains was published in the First Quarter 1992 edition of the NYC Historical Society's magazine, the Central Headlight. The back issue is available from the society at www.nycshs.org.

So long,

Andy