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NEW YORK CENTRAL FREIGHT CAR ROSTER
This is a summary of NYC freight cars and corresponding HO scale models ( for those in other scales, this list can be used as a cross reference to help identify models that may be close to NYC prototype. A recent trend in the model railroad business is for different companies to release the same or similar car in different scales). Cars are listed in NYC's lot # order and starts at Lot 200-B which was the first lot using this numbering series. Since cars built for the various components of the NYC prior to the introduction of the 'lot #' reference are difficult to locate photos, only those cars still listed in the 1924 equipment book have been included in this listing.
Renumberings from CI&S, LS&MS and NYC&HR occurred starting around 1915 and completed around 1925/1926. Renumberings from CCC&STL, NOR, MCRR occurred starting in 1936. Renumberings did not happen overnight and in some cases, a few cars remained with their original reporting marks until retirement many years later. Last CCC&STL, NOR and MCRR lettered cars remained on the roster until the early 1950's. Also note that there are cars that were removed from their original car series, renumbered and assigned to special service. Unfortunately, many of these cars show up in the equipment registers, but their original series/lot # are unknown. These cars are not listed here until I can confirm their original lot #.
Service life dates are based on Equipment Register listings and only reflect dates cars carried NYC ( or NYC subsidiary ) reporting marks and DO NOT take into account later Penn Central and/or Conrail renumberings as some cars are still in service today with PC, CR, CSX and NS reporting marks. Also, information from equipment registers should not be considered 100% accurate and cars may have actually been removed from service long before they are removed from ( or added to ) the listings. Frequently, a couple cars remained listed for quite sometime after the rest of the fleet had been retired, leaving one to believe that either they just happened to be stragglers or were late in being removed from the equipment listings.
Though I would like to believe this information is 100% correct, it is only as good as the original information from NYC equipment books, ORERs and other paper sources. MDT roster information is primarily based on a 1964 MDT equipment roster. Early MDT information is solely based on equipment registers. I would consider the MDT information to be far less accurate than the NYC information. Dates of rebuilding or modifications are sometimes estimates and may not reflect the true dates.
During the 70's, 80's and 90's, most NYC equipment was either retired or relettered for Penn Central and/or Conrail and the survivors may now carry NS or CSX reporting marks. To prepare for the Conrail breakup, some equipment had NYC reporting marks applied, regardless of their origin. These cars should NOT BE confused with actually NYC equipment as most of the cars these new NYC reporting marks are applied to never belonged to the original NYC and some were originally Pennsylvania Railroad equipment. Just prior to the time that Conrail started to apply the NYC reporting marks in preparation for the breakup, there were just THREE NYC cars still with their original NYC reporting marks and these cars were from the 506000-506199 Lot 888-F series which were gone by the end of 1998. All cars in service with NYC reporting marks from 1999 to today are a result of the Conrail breakup ( though some cars relettered with NYC reporting marks were actually on the NYC roster originally).
There are few models that match any NYC prototype 100%, so some minor modifications may be required. One detail found on nearly all NYC cars are the roping staples - usually found above the bolsters, which nearly none of the current models available have this feature. For modelling purposes, I have broken the list into "ACCURATE MODEL" and "STAND-IN MODEL" Cars that are reasonably close that do not require a significant amount of work to resemble the NYC prototype are listed under "ACCURATE MODEL". Minor details may be incorrect and some cars may have molded on parts, but overall, the model is a reasonably correct model of a NYC car. Please note that these listings are based on the car model itself - not the paint job applied to the model. Some models may be accurate, but the paint jobs applied may have some form of accuracy issues which I have not covered in the list. Since the level of detail to make a model 'accurate' is up to the modeler, for this list, models that are accurate yet still have molded on details ( grab irons, etc.) will still count as accurate, whereas a poorly detailed model would end up in the Stand-In category. Models that require more significant work, have some significant detail differences or are simply not very accurate, but may be suitable as an option for some modelers are listed under "STAND-IN MODEL" . There may of course be models that I am not familiar with and therefore not listed. New models coming to market are added as soon as I am able to determine their possible NYC relation. Any suggestions for additional model listings are appreciated if I've missed a model that is on the market, though many of the emails I receive suggesting additions are quite often for cars that do not match any NYC prototype, which is why they are not even listed here.
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This file is 3.165 Meg in size, so it may take a while to load. PROCEED TO THE FREIGHT CAR ROSTER
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NOTES ON FREIGHT CAR PAINTING: Hoppers, flatcars and gondolas: An issue that keeps coming up concerns the color used on NYC freight cars - primarily the open top cars ( hoppers, flat cars and gondolas ), since during different time periods, they were painted either freight car brown or Black. So here is the answer based on Railroad documents, as outlined in various issues of the NYCSHS Headlight: * All NYC hoppers, flat cars and gondolas were painted black prior to February 20, 1941. * From February 20, 1941 to June 6, 1956 they were painted freight car brown. * After June 6, 1956, shops equipped for handling F-1 black car cement, between April 1 and October 1 were BLACK. Shops NOT equipped for handling F-1 cement and ALL shops between October 1 and April 1 were freight car brown. This information comes from Specification P-18, Painting Open Top and Flat Cars, first issued December 28, 1921. In practice, it seems that locations with inside paint facilities used black F-1 cement year round and these locations accounted for the preponderance of cars painted. * From about 1960 to 1968 a black paint replaced the F-1 cement and was used year round on hoppers, gondolas and flatcars. Some special service gondolas received silver paint. Some P&LE gondolas and flatcars were painted Century Green between 1960 and late 1966. * NOTE: Dates quoted are the official drawing dates and may not reflect actual dates of first / last usage as some shops may have used the old style longer than the date quoted and some shops may have started painting cars prior to the official drawings being produced. So, dates should only be used as a guideline and occurances of new / old paint jobs may span a couple of months on either side of the official drawing date.
Heralds and Lettering style:
* Experimental blue boxcar scheme applied to cars 92102 and 220539 in September 1958. Reporting marks and data were Gothic style.
Cleaning: X = New Primer: 4 - C 4 = MFG: Pittsburgh Plate Glass C = Type: Vinyl Resin Finish Coat: 4 - C - 2 4 = MFG: Pittsburgh Plate Glass C= Type: Vinyl Resin 2 = 2 coats. Shop: P-S = Pullman Standard Date: 3-56 = March 1956. CLICK HERE FOR LIST OF PAINT CODES
Other painting notes: * During the 1920's, many cars had a "S-" in front of the car number. From what we can determine, there was two meanings. First, it signified a "SYSTEM" car, or one which was "at home" on any of the NYC affiliated roads and secondly it denoted a maintenance group - which basically determined the limit of expenditure for repairs. * A STAR under the herald was suppose to denote a car that was not to be sent off line ( per Charles Smith - NYCSHS - Third Quarter 1995 Headlight) ( NOT to be confused with a star located next to the car capacity ). In addition to this, based on an article in the December 1947 Headlight, there was a major shortage of freight cars, primarily boxcars, and this may have been in an effort to keep cars online to continue to provide enough cars for NYC customers ( please note that this is NOT specifically stated in the article). Since this shortage was from 1945 to around 1949, most cars having this star were built or rebuilt during this same period of time. During these years, cars were being retired ( due to being worn out by extreme war time demands on the fleet ) at a faster rate than new cars could be built and at the same time freight traffic was at an all time peace-time high, resulting in a critical shortage of cars during these years - this was a nationwide crisis - not a NYC only situation, so this may have been a NYC effort to keep a supply of cars on hand for their own customers. Once the shortage of cars ended, these cars roamed off home rails. Another use reported indicates that the STAR meant the car was for clean lading only, such as grain service. I have not found any NYC documents to support any of these uses. * A YELLOW CIRCLE with a black A denotes a car acceptable for clean lading only.
Of course, with a Railroad the size of the NYC with a huge fleet of cars, there were some exceptions to these guidelines. Dates noted above are the official date on the NYC drawings and may not reflect the date of the first instance of the change.
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NYC Caboose roster: NYC Caboose roster/model reference NYC Passenger car roster: NYC Passenger car roster/model reference NYC Maintenance of Way roster: NYC MofW roster
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If you have any questions, corrections or comments, please send them to: nyc @ canadasouthern.com
This page last updated September 18, 2011
