Conrail Rolling Stock Question.

[DavidH66]

When and how did Conrails 880000 series of Covered Hoppers get repainted, specifically the ones that repainted oxide red. It seems several of them have shed their oxide red and are 75% or more jade green and I am curious what the factors were for this.

 

Also I've seent hat several of them were formerly marked for "PCB" a Penn Central affiliate, what was PCB?

[tree68]

DavidH66

Also I've seent hat several of them were formerly marked for "PCB" a Penn Central affiliate, what was PCB?

PC, PCA, and PCB are all listed for Penn Central/NS.  Odds are they ran out of available numbers in the desired range.  If car numbers are limited to six digits, that's a lot of cars, but if you're limited by surrounding series, you head for a suffix.  

UP has encountered this with locomotives, hence "UPY"

[CShaveRR]

PCA and PCB probably had to do with the financing of the cars involved.  It was not caused by too many cars for the numbers, as there was no duplication of number series between the reporting marks.  

The covered hopper cars lettered PCB were mostly relettered CR before being sold off.  The box cars lettered PCA, on the other hand, were transferred to other railroads or leasing companies fairly quickly, and often rebuilt.

(On the other hand, the UP/UPY thing did ease a lot of the pressure on UP's locomotive roster.  They still wind up renumbering older series out of the way of the new locomotives coming in, though.)

As for which cars wear which color, there probably was a timeframe for each color of covered hopper you see.  The green ones are pre-Conrail...no repainting, just relettering from PC or PCB.  Red cars were fully repainted from their previous paint schemes.  But the most modern, or most recently repainted, CR cars were most likely gray. 

[DavidH66]

I knew the PCB and PCA had to do with the company post- bankruptcy, but I never knew what the entity that owned the PCB/PCA marks was or why they used PCB/PCA instead of PC.

And the question was asked, because I recently found a conrail covered hopper that shed over 95% of its Oxide red paint and was primarily in a Jade Green sitting in srtorage near my hometown. further research showed that there are others in the 880000 that are also showing off large amounts of Jade green, when none of the grey ones seem to have that same issue.

http://davidellias.rrpicturearchives.net/pictures%5C112281%5Cgreenconrail%20039.JPG

 

 

 

[sandiego]

The PCA and PCB initials were used for leased cars; after PC entered bankruptcy they were unable to purchase freight cars (or locomotives) but could (with permission from the bankruptcy court) lease rail equipment. The PCA and PCB initials provided a easy way to identify equipment to be repossessed if PC defaulted on the lease payments. I seem to recall that two different financing entities were involved, hence the two suffixes.

As for the oxide red paint coming off, it sounds like a bad paint job; probably poor surface preparation. PC green did fade, and faded paint is oxidized paint. This oxidized paint forms a dust or chalk on the surface that eventually weathers off. Of course rail cars pick up a lot of grime also, some of which is oily (diesel exhaust) and paint doesn't stick well to that either.

 

Kurt Hayek

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Different reporting marks for leased rolling stock occurred on other roads, too.  Some Missouri-Kansas-Texas cars carried a BKTY reporting mark since they were leased form Bankers' Leasing Co.  Another variation was the DWC reporting marks on Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific which were stenciled as Canadian-built cars restricted to international service.  I believe that the Delaware & Hudson "I Love New York" boxcars carried DHNY reporting marks to signify ownership by the State of New York.

[CShaveRR]

...and is still occurrng!

UP is constantly acquiring cars that are lettered in CMO, CTRN, and CHTT series as well as UP.  It also now has a fleet of 50-foot box cars with BKTY reporting marks, many of which were leased to UP as EEC box cars.  Some of these BKTY cars were old CNW box cars, relettered directly from CNW reporting marks.

And just recently I heard (though I haven't seen this for myself) that BNSF acquired a small series of stack cars that have been relettered SLSF!

[tree68]

CShaveRR

that have been relettered SLSF!

I think I saw a completely unpatched SLSF car the other day.  IIRC, it was a covered hopper....

And if it wasn't SLSF, it was definitely a long-fallen flag.

[DavidH66]

Thanks sandiego for your answers!

 

While we're ont he subject, what about the CPAA and CNA cars? Whata re those markings for? I see a lot of those down here in TN, so I theorized that theyw ere for American servce only. Is that right or wrong?

[sandiego]

Information from Surface Transportation Board recordations:

STB Recordation 6101:  PCA 166000-166999 (1000 cars) leased by Trustees of the Penn Central from SHPX Fifth Corp.; lease dated 3-23-71. These are 50' boxcars built by ACF; PC Class X-71.

STB Recordation 6263:  PCB 888749-889999 (1251 cars) leased by Pullman Incorporated (lease dated 8-1-71) from First Western Bank and Trust Company, and then subleased by Trustees of the Penn Central from Pullman Incorporated; sublease dated 4-29-71. The 1251 cars were from three lots as follows:

Lot 9561—PCB 888749-889748 (1000 cars) BLT 8-71 to 10-71; H45; green paint

Lot 9562—PCB 889749-889948 (200 cars) BLT 10-71; H45; gray paint

Lot 9563—PCB 889949-889999 (51 cars) BLT 1971; H45; green paint

All cars 4785 CU FT covered hoppers.

Production information from "Pullman Standard Freight Car Production" copyright 2002 by Eric A. Neubauer.

Kurt Hayek