|
|
Post by cpr4200 on Sept 14, 2024 22:27:37 GMT -8
I'm interesting in Pennsy's X29 express cars in the years before the PC merger. Not many photos out there. I'd guess the PRRTHS has covered these at some point. Can someone point me to some info?
|
|
|
|
Post by The Ferro Kid on Sept 15, 2024 11:03:33 GMT -8
|
|
|
|
Post by edwardsutorik on Sept 16, 2024 9:09:55 GMT -8
From the first link cited above, there is a chart with entries of X29 cars. Three of those show the AAR code of BX, which is an express box. They were converted from the code XM, which is "regular" box. One of the chart entries is incorrect. The BX allocation placed in the series 502000-505948 should be moved to the series 566091-574091. Below is a chart I made, with the number series on the left side, and the dates for various copies of The Official Register of Passenger Train Equipment that I checked.  It shows how many of the BX cars were listed. At least for the early books, each car number is also listed. It appears none of these cars were in PC service. Red Caboose made models of these cars. The part number was RC-7072-x, with "x" indicating various car numbers. Two numbers that I checked were indeed on the list. The model matches the photo in the link, for the express car. Ed |
|
|
|
Post by cpr4200 on Sept 16, 2024 12:05:08 GMT -8
Thank you for the info. I had seen those pages before. I have a couple of the Red Caboose cars, and I think they all have vertical brake staffs (including those made for the Amarillo group). I'd think that by 1967 most of those in express service would have had power handbrakes. At least I haven't noticed any vertical brake wheels above the roofline on photos of M&E trains in later years. Also haven't found any photos of the cars in the last scheme with the big keystone and just "PRR" on the left side.
|
|
|
|
Post by edwardsutorik on Sept 16, 2024 14:28:42 GMT -8
I'd think that by 1967 most of those in express service would have had power handbrakes. In 1967, there weren't any that could have power handbrakes. But I do agree that power handbrakes very likely were applied to these cars, at some point. There's a PRR io group that I'm sure will be very helpful: prr.groups.io/g/PRRI'll note that these cars showed up on the SP&S in the summer of 1945 (and likely other times too). Which explains why I picked an RC car up. Ed |
|
|
|
Post by wagnersteve on Sept 17, 2024 13:00:36 GMT -8
9/17/2024, nearly 5 p.m., EDT
Userful and interesting thread. If what I saw most of as a kid determined my modeling choices, I'd be modelling the PRR. In fact my main interest is in the D&H, with the B&M second, and numerous other Canadian and mostly Northeastern US lines following.
I'm nearly certain that the reason that so many X29 boxcars lasted in PRR express service as they did is that they could fit through the tunnels under the Hudson and East Rivers. Some PRR express cars somehow got as far north on the D&H as Whitehall, NY, near Lake Champlain's South Bay. I've never really understood how north-south freight and express interchange in the parts of New Jersey nearest New York City worked. The main freight interchange between the PRR and the D&H was near Wilkes-Barre, PA.
|
|
|
|
Post by cpr4200 on Sept 17, 2024 13:38:24 GMT -8
Re: PRR express cars on the D&H: Was there a connection between PRR at Penn Station and NYC's High Line?
|
|
|
|
Post by hudsonyard on Sept 20, 2024 14:28:25 GMT -8
Re: PRR express cars on the D&H: Was there a connection between PRR at Penn Station and NYC's High Line? Negative, PRR was way below street level and NYC was....in the air. The empire connection was not built until decades later. |
|
|
|
Post by hudsonyard on Sept 20, 2024 14:34:28 GMT -8
Some PRR express cars somehow got as far north on the D&H as Whitehall, NY, near Lake Champlain's South Bay. I've never really understood how north-south freight and express interchange in the parts of New Jersey nearest New York City worked. The main freight interchange between the PRR and the D&H was near Wilkes-Barre, PA. Semi-educated guess but those cars likely came up the PRR Sunbury main to WB after originating in Harrisburg, handed off to the D&H and forwarded over to the Albany area. |
|
|
|
Post by wagnersteve on Sept 20, 2024 15:31:10 GMT -8
9/20/2024, about 7:30 p.m., EDT
cpr4200 and hudsonyard, thanks for your replies to my post above, which I've just now seen. hudsonyard, your "semi-educated guess" seems very plausible.
|
|
|
|
Post by ernestbaron on Oct 23, 2024 8:24:08 GMT -8
I'm interesting in Pennsy's X29 express cars in the years before the PC merger. Not many photos out there. I'd guess the PRRTHS has covered these at some point. Can someone point me to some info? If interested in modeling these cars in HO, in the Circle Keystone Scheme, Mount Vernon Shops has a decal set: www.mountvernonshops.com/products/ho-prr-rea-x29-boxcar-decalsAs for pictures of individual cars, there aren't many online, however many of the MOW X29's are former REA equipped cars. These are easily identifiable because the end have brackets for marker lights and the door has a grab and stirrup step for accessing the cars interior. Regular freight-service cars did not have these features. As for the question about seeing an REA equipped X29 on a D&H train, remember that cars assigned in REA service were kind of in a generic pool for use by any REA location for any REA traffic. So that REA X29 could have been routed to the D&H via a D&H passenger train from anywhere to anywhere. I'm not 100% sure where PRR M&E trains would have terminated or done a crew change when going rom the PRR to the New Haven (Sunnyside was essentially a one-diretion terminal with aloop on one end, no provisions to stop and keep running through), but I would imagine somehere close to NYC, and even then traffic probably warranted some type of transfer between REA facilities for the PRR/NH to the NYC/NH. (Yes, New Haven trains terminated in both NYC Penn Station and NYC Grand Central.) |
|
