What railroads other than NYC would be seen hauling NYC Early Bird Reefers.

IMHO, there's no such thing as a dumb question. I don't know the answer but I have seen a picture with UP and SF reefer cars in New York Central's Weehawken, NJ yard so my guess would be that it is possible those cars ran on foreign rails. I'll let the experts chime in.

Thats why I put it out there. I could not find any references other than NYC exclusive. So if thats the case then I will get ride of the car.

 

Seems like I recall seeing something in the REAL TRAINS forum about the Early Bird, here's one reference I found:

 

http://newyorkcentrallayout.bl...ly-bird-service.html

 

And here's the NYC Historical Society page:

 

http://nycshs.org/

 

Some of their quarterly mags are available for downloading.

 

If I run across anything in all my ACL/SAL Historical Society mags I'll let you know.  I'm curious too as I need to get a few pieces of rolling stock other than SAL (probably 90% of what I own is SAL).

Bob

 

Thanks for the links. I had already found them but they did not help. Thanks for looking in your yard shots of ACL/Seaboard. In my research of SP yard shots I was able to find Burlington, CNW and GN. This made sense as SP had connections in Seattle(GN) and with the Denver Rio Grand(Burlington and CNW). I had also discovered but not confirmed that ACL/Seaboard also hauled N&W coal drags due to coal powered electric generating stations in Florida. So hopefully the NYC experts can help with the Early bird Reefer cars.

 

Doug   

There can be lots of possibilities for the NYC cars to be hauled wherever they were needed, even to California.

I have seen photos in old train magazines of Santa Fe boxcars in the Reading PA yard in the 1950's.

 

I have seen some Santa Fe(ATSF logo) and another Santa Fe boxcar with "The Q stands for Quality" boxcars in Indiantown FL(west of Stuart FL) on CXS tracks at a siding. I was under the impression that the "Q" was only used by Quaker State Oil.

 

Lee Fritz

In theory they could end up anywhere IMHO.  There are very few cars that are 100% dedicated service and restricted to a single line.  It's funny how folks get upset when I put a correct for the era Rio Grande box car behind a PRR loco of the same era......as if it never happened.  

Thanks Dave

Thats my thinking too. Although Early bird refrigerator cars in the west Unlikely.  Cargo most likey wood be seafood anyway.  But I would also think that useing poolcars would be more likely. But that is why I asked the question.

I'm with Dave, any CONUS location/railroad would be possible. I would imagine that the preponderance would be east of the Rockies though.

 

The route could be heavily influenced on where a load was going. Say, a packer needs to send a load to St. Louis or Atlanta. Since the packer is assumed to be ON the NYC, whatever connecting road to StL or ATL that had the best agreement with the NYC or allowed the NYC the greater mileage charge would be the preferred road. The packer could influence what car the load would be using - if they had CNW and NYC cars, he would load the easiest for him. The fly in the ointment would be if the shipper specified what route would be used. And that, then, goes back to the first comment - anyplace could be possible. 

 

 

suzukovich:

 

These cars wandered far off line. In fact, on Page 40 of Morning Sun's "NYC Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment," there is a picture of NYRX 2507 complete with "Early Bird" herald at Fort Worth, TX in 1961.

 

Regards,

 

Bob