1930's NYC Pacemaker Car Colors?

Are your sure it wasn't referring to the Pacemaker passenger train? It was an all coach train that ran between New York City and Chicago. The cars were two tone gray heavyweights with a paint scheme similar to the 1940 20th Century Ltd.

Pete

Perhaps this link will help. It's another chapter from Ted Hikel's highly informative and ongoing thread about freight cars:

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/t...yc-pacemaker-boxcars

Thank you, Jon and Pete,

Unfortunately, through out the post you that you, Jon, mention, has no info. regarding the 1930's NYC 'Pacemaker' cars and/or the color paint scheme, used.

BUT, I read, in NYC RR literature, that the original car color, of the NYC 'Pacemaker' service, was 'GREEN, but no  further info. and I tried to contact the author and the NYC Historical Society, but to NO avail!

Pete, this was a NYC 'Pacemaker,' I should have added, 'Freight' service, during the 1930's and up until WWII.

Ralph

Ralph

This 1941 NYC time table lists NB-1 and BN-2 on pages 11-14.

http://www.canadasouthern.com/.../freight-tt-0241.pdf

Their rolling stock likely looked something like this, a standard boxcar in mineral red.

http://www.canadasouthern.com/...mages/nyc-175000.jpg

Hi,

Pacemaker freight cars were specially painted in a red and grey scheme.  You can see many pix by "searching" Pacemaker on this forum. A couple of cabooses were also painted in the Pacemaker scheme.  I don't believe that the grey with white stripe scheme used on some heavyweight passenger cars was exclusively for the Pacemaker.  Those cars found their way into many NYC consists together with Pullman Green unstriped cars.  Eventually, the Pacemaker was equipped with Budd stainless steel cars and diesel power and operated in NY - Chicago service as part of NYC's "Great Steel Fleet".

X2000

Everything I'm coming up with states Pacemaker Freight Service was instituted in 1946.

One would think that with the New York Central being such a well documented railroad, information about the existance of Pacemaker freight service prior to 1946 would have been available.

Rusty

Everything I'm coming up with states Pacemaker Freight Service was instituted in 1946.

Rusty

The NYC Pacemaker freight service with the dedicated gray and vermilion box cars and five matching cabooses was inaugurated in 1946 with great marketing fanfare.  However, the NYC operated overnight New York - Buffalo LCL only freight trains under the same symbols (NB-1 and BN-2) prior to WW II.  It is documented in the 1941 time table linked above.  However, the pre-war service seems to have lacked the flashy cars, name and marketing of the post-war freight train.  Boxcar Red (mineral red, freight car color, etc) seems to be a likely candidate for cars in NY-Buffalo LCL service prior to WW II.

The Pacemaker was also the name of a New York - Chicago all coach passenger train.  I believe its consist was Pullman Green before it received stainless steel Budd lightweight equipment after the war.

Gentlemen, I thank all of you for your concern and input.

Ted, your info. regarding NYC's (NB-1 and NB-2) prior to WWII, is what I am asking about and I would like further info. about what type of cars, the markings and color scheme.

I have tried to contact the NYC Historical Society for info. of the original 1930's 'Pacemaker' service, which was discontinued by WWII, and the 'Pacemaker' cars being 'GREEN' and the original 'Pacemaker' 'Banner/Graphic/Herald/Logo/Symbol' was Diamond shaped with 'red and white' in it, which leaves me to believe that it was similar to 'Railway Express Agency's' logo, but there is no further info. and I get no response. 

This info. I read in some NYC literature, but I can't remember where I read it and who wrote the article.

Ralph

I know that this post is almost a year late, but here goes!!!!!!:

Here is the NYC info. I was referring to regarding NYC's Pacemaker Service from the late 1930's until WWII, when it wads stopped.

The  original Pacemaker cars were Green, as is noted at the bottom of the post.

And!  Today, I met a fellow who said that the First start of NYC's Pacemaker Service that the box cars were green with the Pacemaker Service script, just below the roofline and to the left of the door, in white lettering and below that was the NYC logo, also to the left of the door.  When, WWII broke out the Pacemaker Service was discontinued, until after the war, about 1945/6 and with the more famous Red and Gray color scheme.

As, of this time, I still cannot find any other info. or even B&W photos. of the late 1930's, to WWII, Green Pacemaker Service box cars.

As such:

http://www.ominousweather.com/NYCLines.html#Pacemaker

Ralph

AB

Pacemaker cars were intended for LCL (Less-Than-Carload)   service on-line only.  They were XM Box Cars but had a Load Limit of 50,000lbs.  This is less than half the capacity of conventional XM cars of the period so would severely limit their use in interchange service.  These cars were designed to run in high speed (allowed 60MPH) service and had an AB-1-B brake valve that necessitated an additional air brake hose between cars to provide for a Controlled Emergency which was a concession for running these speeds in short signal blocks.  The cars had the standard 1 1/4" air brake hose and an additional 3/4" hose that when charged to 40lbs provided the Controlled Emergency feature on each car to be functional. This is why they ran in solid train sets when this high speed service was in effect.  Speed was important to make the service attractive: this didn't only apply to the main-line.  Dedicated switch crews worked at Utica & Syracuse to keep the freight houses spotted: these crews could bend the rule until they almost broke flying around the yard to keep the freight platforms plugged.   

Train NB-1 was a solid merchandise only train in "Pacemaker" cars.  It provided  service Monday - Thursday out of 33rd Street, New York City, to Buffalo each evening in under 12 hours making drops at Utica (large LCL Freight house north side of mainline) and Syracuse. It was designed to get package freight overnight from New York City to upstate New York points for next day delivery by freight forwarders.  A freight forwarder in these days being a separate trucking company that bought space by the cubic foot in Pacemaker Cars to move the traffic they solicitited at origion to locations where the traffic was broken up and delivered to their customers.  This in its day was revolutionary because it wasn't car load traffic and the railroad did not use its Traffic Dept to obtain the business. Pacemaker freight was the beginning of what became piggyback service and todays package service like UPS & Fed Ex.

urrengr2003 this is valuable information, of which I did not know of these extra details.

I appreciate your professional railroad experience and knowledge.

Thank you and Take Care,

Ralph