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Discussion relating to the Penn Central, up until its 1976 inclusion in Conrail. Visit the Penn Central Railroad Historical Society for more information.

Moderator: JJMDiMunno

 #799574  by atlpete
 
I have a slide of this car taken at Sunnyside(a severly color-shifted mug-shot where-in the upper part is degraded to brown) and was wondering if this car is the only one PRR acquired from DR&GW? My understanding is most of these(ex-C&O 1660 series aka "Robert R Young" cars) went to the D&H. Ironically I have seen it show up in many photos in PC service, primarily on the Cincinatti Ltd/Penn-Texas and Chicago-Cinncy trains. I know the PRR acquired two of the cafe-lounges for the coach portion of the Broadway(1148-49 to PC 4448-9) but am curious if the 3185 is the only coach example PC had of these cars. They are a favorite of mine in their somewhat distinctive half green and stainless livery.
TIA, Pete
 #857287  by jhdeasy
 
Are you sure 3185 is the correct car number?

I know of no lightweight passenger car numbered D&RGW 3185 or Penn Central 3185.

Penn Central 3165 was a 52 seat coach built by Pullman Standard in 1946 as D&RGW 1244, acquired by PC in 1970. This car later served as Amtrak 5275 before it was retired.
 #860877  by John Laubenheimer
 
PC did pick up a couple of ex-D&RGW full lounge cars, and used these as the coach lounge on the BROADWAY LIMITED. IIRC, these did not have the standard "tall" windows common to the ex-C&O PS builds, while their diner-lounges, coaches and sleepers had the "tall" windows.
 #865087  by atlpete
 
To be clear, no I'm not sure the number is 3185, the slide I have is the only decent close-up I have of the side and the number's not particularly clear so 3165
is likely it. Car shows up in a variety of magazine shots of PC trains, but none of the photos are close or clear enough either.
Shots in service include of it on #65 between Chi and Cinn, #78 Cinn Ltd section, and combined with #4 at Princeton, NJ.
Great looking car, I'm gonna build a 1/48 model of it if I can find the ALW kit. Ditto one of those five all green ACF ex-UP coaches.
 #1425628  by jhdeasy
 
AtlantaHudson wrote:Here's a fairly new shot of this car, unlike my browned out slide the color is good.
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/pc/pc-co3165dca.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I know it's conjecture but imagine a good sized consist of these RRYoung style cars in this scheme. I still plan to build a model of this one and the one of the ex-UP coaches.
Pete

Thanks for sharing the photo of this car. The windowless area in the center of this car suggests this was a divided coach, which would have been used in several states where C&O operated, if they had retained ownership of the car, in compliance with "Jim Crow" laws enforced at that time.
 #1426127  by Tadman
 
Very interesting picture. I have always been of the opinion that the full-green PC passenger cars looked like rolling stock from a communist bloc country and the stainless cars looked like hand-me-downs from SCL with their black roofs. Neither were that attractive. However, the faux-stainless P-S cars with some olive drab and some stainless are pretty good looking, and I don't know that I've ever noticed that before.

And talk about lineage - C&O-DRGW-PRR-PC is pretty good mileage for a lightweight car circa 1970.