As the title says, what are the best freight consists for the New York Central's Hudsons? I ask since, although I have enough passenger consists for my multiple Hudsons (all of which Lionel) from the Heavyweights to the Rail Chief set, freight is something I'm not as familiar, but not as picky either.
Freight consists don't have to be all that time specific, anything that you think looks good I'm interested in. 
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Later in their career NYC Hudson's pulled anything, I have a video, that has them double heading a coal hopper car consist.
Clem
Mikado 4501 - yes, the NYC Hudsons were big, powerful locomotives that were used
for anything and everything - including work trains (I have pictures) - depending on
needs, conditions and where they were in their "careers". Certainly you were far more
likely to see a Hudson hauling freight, say, after WWII than before it. But, again,
tractive effort is tractive effort, and if a trainmaster needed power now, and an
unassigned Hudson was what was at hand in the middle of the night, those 79-inch
drivers could haul that freight, thank you very much.
Anyway, to increase plausibility, freights consisting of 40's and 50's rolling stock would
look best - of course, freight cars last a long time, so older cars would fit in too. Just
stay away from any car built after 1957 (someone correct me if that's a bit off), which is the last year that the 4-6-4's were in service.
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What I want to see is a photo of a still-streamlined NYC Hudson at the head of a freight.
They were worked hard during WWII, and not de-streamlined until several years later.
Sometime in 1943 a Dreyfuss 4-6-4 just had to draw a freight assignment in
a pinch. The photos show how filthy they got during that period.
As Clem and D500 have pointed out, in the waning days of steam leftover Hudsons were used for most anything. However, the most common or logical use for a Hudson as a freight engine would be pulling a fast train of reefers. There the Hudson's speed would be an asset, and it would be running at a speed where it would be reasonably fuel efficient. A Consolidation or light Mikado is a much better choice for a work train. I've seen a photo of a Milwaukee Road streamlined Hiawatha 4-6-4 in front of a string of reefers in the early 50's, just before the streamliners were scrapped.
They saw duty on Milk trains. These trains ran on a passenger type schedule. Research and you should be a able to build a nice colorful consist of cars heading for New York City. As far as streamlined Hudson's. Often times after shopping passenger engines would be broken in on local freight trains. It's your RR and the NYC did it. You'll just have to believe it may have been done with your cab nos. and streamlining.
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