M of W Vehicles.

What color were MofW vehicles in the sixties, pick ups, hirail, service trucks, etc. can't seem to locate a photo. How were they lettered, what herald, etc. any help would be appreciated, thanks.

I have a slide of a hirail taken in 1963. It is a Chevrolet station wagon that appears to be a dark navy blue. It has a cigar band logo on the driver's door with ROAD TO THE FUTURE above it. The number X-301 is on the fender right next to the door.

I saw one photo of a an old Van in Jade Green with a NYC Logo on it.

Until the late 1950's NYC trucks (M of W and Equipment Deparments) were dark olive green, almost like Army trucks, with white NYC ovals on the doors.

About 1960, the standard NYC paint job changed to bright yellow, with the current herald, whatever it was, on the door. They were essentially the same color as the track motor cars, cranes and track equipment, or as close as the manufacturer could make it with one of their standard yellows.

Some hi-rails used by division and higher level officials were all sorts of different colors. The River Division had a Ford F-500 hi-rail bus painted a lighter green with an ivory band somewhere around the windows, if I remember correctly. I first saw that around 1958.

Thanks Dave, fglk & ChiefTroll,
I would think the blue one might have been Perlmans or some other div. officials car.

I thought they were yellow but couldn't find a color pic, I'm sure some might have got century green too, during the 60's.

Thanks again.

NYC painted almost everything yellow. Penn Central painted trucks green unless they were hi-rails, which remained yellow. Mr. Perlman had one of the first Hi-rails, a black Chrysler station wagon, about 1957. I think it was numbered X-101, so the X-301 could have been the third iteration, or it might have been assigned to a subordinate official or district.

On my web site (below), click the link at left to "Non-Steam Rarities" and scroll down. There are two photos of the Chrysler Imperial NYC president's cars, the M-100 (as I noted on the back of the photo, perhaps it should have been X-100?) and the X-104. I took these photos in 1955 and 1958, respectively, on black and white film, so I can't vouch for the color but obviously it was either black or some very dark color. A photo of what is probably a slightly newer model than the first car appears in the June, 1957 issue of TRAINS, again in black-and-white but obviously a dark paint job. It is possible that Perlman was in one or both of these cars when I took the photos, but at the time I had no interest in who the riders were (I was 16-19 years old then).

I just ran across another hirail picture in the book 50 Best of the New York Central System - Book Three while looking for something else. It is a station wagon that appears to be black in the 1965 B x W photo. Not sure of the make. It is a front view but you can just make out a cigar band logo on the driver's door.

ChiefTroll, do you think schoolbus yellow would be an appropriate yellow for the MofW equipment or was it a brighter yellow similar to loco. handrails.

The yellow coating for non-revenue equipmrnt including MoW equipment is AREA Yellow. AREA stands for the American Railway Engineering Association today known as the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance (of way) Association. There was or is a standard color chip for this coating.

AREMA has a web page which may be of value to someone.

AREA (now AREMA) at one time published a paint chip for AREA Yellow in the Manual for Railway Engineering. Now they specify a Federal Government Procurement Standard 595-B color, designated 13538.

You can go to the web site below and look it up for a close approximation.

http://www.ipms-earth.com/fs595b/

I have a 54' Chev. 1 ton canopy express. The registration expired
1-15-64 and was sold later that year by bid to the m-o-w foreman that
drove it. It was yellow( definitely not school bus) with New York Central
System in an oval but without the white background, E- *****, M-O-W Div,
Track (3-lines).
I feather sanded a few spots, body and fenders, and found a heavy coat of
black (not primer ) on the fenders and running boards. This tells me that
it came off the assembly line with black fenders,
and may have been delivered that way or it might have been sent to another
line for fleet painting.
The body on this truck was yellow from day one until it was retired.
A door will be coming off later in August and if anyone is interested I can
put a picture up.

Thanks chnaus, I tried Model Master bright yellow on a light gray primer on the model and it looks pretty close going from what I can remember the PC vehicles looked like that where still around, I'm figuring they were the same yellow.
Now if we can only figure how each vehicle was numbered!

Thanks again!

Pretty close is good enough. With some batch variation, plus weathering there is always variation in paint.

This is what Penn Central used to put there equipment in order Conrail used the PC's Adverb List as well. I put this list together with the help of fellow Penn Central and Conrail railroad emploees back in 1998.

AT--Air Tamper (Jack Hammer)
AE--??
AK--Track Welder
BZ--Ballest Zipper
BP--Ballest Preperater
BR--Ballest Regulator
BU--Ballest Under Cutter
BC--Ballest Cleaner
CB--Burro Craines
CC--Camp Car
CH--Hy-Rail Craine
CL--Locomotive Craine (Self Powered)
EF--Back Hoes (End-Frount)
FL--Frount End Loader
FG--Flanger
FT--Fuel Tender (Tanker Trucks)
GA--Hy-Rail Grade Alls
JS--Jordon Spreader
LG--Light Generator on Flat Car
LU--Rail Unloader/Reloader
ME--Tie Tamper
PL--Plater
PF--Platform Car
RA--Rail Alinment
RC--Rail Car Mover
RG--Rail Grinder
RS--Rail Setter
RE--Welder Supply Tanks
SP--Spiker/Spike Puller
SS--Scrape Seperator
SM--??
SC--Scrape Bin Hopper
SG--Switch Grinder
SJ--Snow Jet
TS--Track Stabilizer
TB--Track Broom
TC--Track/Tie Cutter
TG--Tie Grabber (Gondola Mounted Craine)
TL--Tie Layer
TP--Tie Puller
TT--Track Tamper
WC--Weed Cutter (Both Wheeled and Rail)
A--Pickup Trucks
D--Dump Trucks
F--Large Delivery Style Vans
G--Large Trucks of varyed types
I--Inspection Trucks
J--Track Welder Trucks
V--Vans varyed types (Common Signal Maintainers Van)

If anyone knows any outhers that I may have missed please let me know.