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Penn Central Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment by James Kinkaid
Penn Central Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment by James Kinkaid
Hard Cover w/Dust jacket Reflections from the lights on some photos.
128 pages
Copyright 1998 FIRST PRINTING
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Head End 5
Food, Lounge and Parlor 8
Sleeper 14
Coach 20
Observation 26
Commuter 27
Business 30
Box33
FGE Reefer 61
Open Hopper65
Gondola 74
Flat 84
Container, Auto Rack & TOFC 95
Covered Hopper 97
Stock and Tank 108
Caboose 108
M of W117
INTRODUCTION
On February 1, 1968, frustrated after a decade of looking for suitable merger partners, and nearing individual collapse, the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central System merged to form the nation's largest rail system, the Penn Central Transportation Company. As part of the merger conditions the New Haven Railroad was folded into the system on January 1, 1969. Unfortunately, on June 21, 1970, the nation was stunned as the new system declared bankruptcy. On April 1, 1976, it was taken over by the United States Federal Government as part of the newly formed Consolidated Rail Corporation, which became known as Conrail.
Penn Central's problems were legion and are better described elsewhere. But the railroad did offer much to the railfan and historian. Because of the railroad's poor capitalization and finances, it was often necessary to make do with what was on hand. In better times (as Conrail would do in a later era) obsolete equipment such as worn out 40' box cars would have been scrapped. By necessity, Penn Central was obliged to keep these last vestiges of post World War Two equipment running, and actually rebuilt and repainted much of this equipment. However, Penn Central did originate several new freight car designs, most of which were quite successful. Their "worm" logo, much derided at the time, is a forerunner of the bold, simplistic logos found nationwide today.
PASSENGER EQUIPMENT
Between the merger and the inclusion of the New Haven, Penn Central became the caretaker of some 65% of the nation's intercity passenger trains. Of course, many of these ran in the Northeast Corridor, where service was quite frequent and included numerous commuter and suburban runs. The formation of Amtrak on May 1, 1971 relieved Penn Central of most intercity passenger train obligations, though the expensive commuter runs remained. Many of these trains would eventually be transferred over to, or at least financially assisted by, the various state departments of transportation.
Penn Central had no real master renumbering plan for their passenger equipment. Much of the inherited passenger equipment was immediately retired due to age and cars were frequently renumbered/renamed as deemed necessary. Though some new cars were constructed for commuter use, no new intercity passenger cars were constructed during Penn Central's tenure (although Metroliner service was begun).
But the road did make an attempt to paint passenger cars in standard schemes, which depended on how the car was constructed. Stainless steel cars, both corrugated and smooth-sided, remained unpainted and received black letter and number boards with white stencilling. Each end received black PC logos, generally mounted on panels attached to the cars sides. Ordinary steel-sheathed cars were painted in a deep green color with white belt rail stripes, company name centered along the top of the car and centered number and name (if used) on its side. Logos were applied on either end of the car. All cars received black roofs.
FREIGHT EQUIPMENT
Penn Central did develop a system-wide renumbering scheme for freight equipment. Originally the numbering scheme was meant to be quite detailed. As an example, number blocks were reserved for numerous variants of the 60' box cars; separate number series were allotted depending on door opening sizes, interior equipment, cushioning, and so forth. While this detailed approach proved to be somewhat unwieldy (mostly due to later acquisitions which couldn't be retroactively fit into the numbering system), as a general rule the renumbering was quite orderly.
Penn Central's renumbering scheme was as follows:
Plain box car100,000 series
Specially equipped box car 200,000 series
Insulated box/reefer 300,000 series
Open Hopper 400,000 series
Gondola and ore 500,000 series
Specially equipped gondola 600,000 series
Flat and container 700,000 series
Covered hopper 800,000 series
non-revenue 5-digit series
Penn Central also utilized other reporting marks besides "PC." B&A, CASO, P&E, PCA and PCB were also used. (The Pittsburgh and Lake Erie was also under PC rule, though for the purposes of this book, we've left that road to be [hopefully] covered by a separate volume.) Cars were generally stenciled B&A (Boston and Albany), CASO (Canada Southern) and P&E (Peoria and Eastern) for car utilization reasons, though there may also have been tax advantages. However, PCA and PCB- marked cars received these marks for an entirely different reason. During
Penn Central's steadily worsening financial crisis, it became necessary to lease new cars from several builders. The builders desired a method in which they could locate and
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