Home Road Survivor
A little surprise is seen here on the rear of CSXT Q424 (Selkirk to West Springfield manifest) in the form of an ancient flexi flo covered hopper carrying the marker. This historic car is an ACF PD3500 Type 996H having been built for the New York Central in 1966 as NYC 885738. It ended up becoming a Penn Central scale test car, PC 80019 and then CR 80019 and finally NYC 80019 under CSX. It is very much on home rails seen here exiting State Line Tunnel at MP 164.8 on CSXT's Berkshire Sub, the former Boston and Abany mainline. Donated to the Danbury Railroad Museum for preservation, a special extra Housatonic Railroad crew would be standing by to pluck this off the rear of the big 125 car freight at Pittsfield and take it directly south by itself.
A little history courtesy of Rapido Trains that just introduced these cars in HO scale for those of you that are modelers:
Built between August 1964 and June 1966 the American Car & Foundry (ACF) 3500 cu.ft. covered hopper was an early innovator in pressure differential unloading and a marketing masterclass thanks to the "Flexi Flo" tag coined by the car's biggest customer, the New York Central railroad.
Other than seven cars built for Shippers Car Line (SHPX), a subsidiary of ACF, the NYC was the only purchaser of the PD3500. They made up for it in quantities, with a total of 220 cars rolling off the Milton, Pennsylvania, production line over three subtly different batches.
Still new at the time of the Penn Central merger, many cars were simply re-patched with PC prefix and logo and renumbered. However, plenty made it through those turbulent years with their full NYC paint intact. Come the era of Conrail and many cars were re-patched again, making them a rolling north-eastern railroad history lesson as patches faded showing PC and NYC logos beneath the famous "canopener"! Many others were repainted, with Conrail applying at least three different schemes.
If there is any lingering feeling among railfans that these cars were captive to the north east then their operation throughout the 1980 and into the 1990s should dispel that misconception as the cars spread their wings, first through the transfer of many cars to Conrail's Merchants Despatch Transportation Co. (MDTX) subsidiary, and then the later sale of cars to NAHX (for Lafarge) and SXSX/SYSX for use in Arizona, California and the south west, all gaining new paint schemes in the process. By 2000, an explosion of patchouts had taken place with a plethora of different reporting marks popping up and no part of the USA off limits. They were even more common in many parts of Canada! Many were still in use well into the mid 2010s, only being retired as they fell foul of the 50 year interchange rule
Canaan, New York
Friday March 26, 2021
Home Road Survivor
A little surprise is seen here on the rear of CSXT Q424 (Selkirk to West Springfield manifest) in the form of an ancient flexi flo covered hopper carrying the marker. This historic car is an ACF PD3500 Type 996H having been built for the New York Central in 1966 as NYC 885738. It ended up becoming a Penn Central scale test car, PC 80019 and then CR 80019 and finally NYC 80019 under CSX. It is very much on home rails seen here exiting State Line Tunnel at MP 164.8 on CSXT's Berkshire Sub, the former Boston and Abany mainline. Donated to the Danbury Railroad Museum for preservation, a special extra Housatonic Railroad crew would be standing by to pluck this off the rear of the big 125 car freight at Pittsfield and take it directly south by itself.
A little history courtesy of Rapido Trains that just introduced these cars in HO scale for those of you that are modelers:
Built between August 1964 and June 1966 the American Car & Foundry (ACF) 3500 cu.ft. covered hopper was an early innovator in pressure differential unloading and a marketing masterclass thanks to the "Flexi Flo" tag coined by the car's biggest customer, the New York Central railroad.
Other than seven cars built for Shippers Car Line (SHPX), a subsidiary of ACF, the NYC was the only purchaser of the PD3500. They made up for it in quantities, with a total of 220 cars rolling off the Milton, Pennsylvania, production line over three subtly different batches.
Still new at the time of the Penn Central merger, many cars were simply re-patched with PC prefix and logo and renumbered. However, plenty made it through those turbulent years with their full NYC paint intact. Come the era of Conrail and many cars were re-patched again, making them a rolling north-eastern railroad history lesson as patches faded showing PC and NYC logos beneath the famous "canopener"! Many others were repainted, with Conrail applying at least three different schemes.
If there is any lingering feeling among railfans that these cars were captive to the north east then their operation throughout the 1980 and into the 1990s should dispel that misconception as the cars spread their wings, first through the transfer of many cars to Conrail's Merchants Despatch Transportation Co. (MDTX) subsidiary, and then the later sale of cars to NAHX (for Lafarge) and SXSX/SYSX for use in Arizona, California and the south west, all gaining new paint schemes in the process. By 2000, an explosion of patchouts had taken place with a plethora of different reporting marks popping up and no part of the USA off limits. They were even more common in many parts of Canada! Many were still in use well into the mid 2010s, only being retired as they fell foul of the 50 year interchange rule
Canaan, New York
Friday March 26, 2021