Pacemaker Boxcars

All Pacemaker XM's were suitable for interchange & were equipped with the necessary safety appliances to make this possible. That said, one must consider the fact that Pacemaker XM's were designed for LCL service and for this reason 10" bearings were suitable for this car. This made a Pacemaker Car nominally a 50 ton CAPY car. General service XM's built in the era immediately after Pacemaker LCL dedicated service was discontinued were 70 ton CAPY cars with 10 1/2" bearings necessary to carry the increased load. Thus Pacemaker XM's could be used to free range in interchange service but their use was restricted to lighter loads than those being used to quote rates at the time they were released from dedicated service. This would limit (but not eliminate) their chances to be used in interchange.

Note also the original Pacemaker cars had AB-1-B brakes that required a second trainline. This was smaller 3/4" than the brake pipe and when charged allowed for a quicker build up of brake cylinder pressure when an emergency application of the brake pipe was made. This was a design feature that allowed solid trains of this equipment to operate at faster speeds in the relative short signal blocks encountered in NYC territory than normal freight trains. This would not prevent these cars from being used in interchange, it just made them unique.

NYC Pacemaker box cars lasted into the mid-70's (with original paint schemes also, but very faded). I saw them when I was working "Puller" jobs (east end Selkirk yard jobs used to pull cars from class yard and build trains in departure yards)) and on the "Hump"; also out on the road too.
I always had a facination with the Pacemaker cars, when I was little, a toy store in Albany, would put up a window store display at Christmas time, with a Lionel NYC Hudson, a string of 6 Pacemaker cars, and a Lionel caboose! It was so cool, but of course we couldn't afford to the by the set, but when we would walk on Central Ave, we always stopped and looked at the set (my father, even though he was a NYC man, the price for a "toy" was way above his pay grade!)

NYC_Dave wrote:Model manufacturers have been known to be “inventive” when it comes to paint schemes & numbering. I suppose the only way to be absolutely sure is to have a photo of the car and number in question.

All of the following information is from the Headlight article, “Appliances on the cars were from a wide variety of manufacturers, perhaps due to wartime shortages of steel.”: 4 brands of metal roofwalks; 2 types of 6’ doors; 6 different truck models; 2 types of hand brakes.

There were three lettering & herald schemes:
1. Original: White lettering – white herald (oval) with red background
The white lettering on gray became hard to read when weathered.
2. Beginning in 1949, black lettering was used on the gray portion.
3. Beginning in 1955, the background of the herald was changed to black.

“There has for some time been a controversy over the roof color on these cars....it would appear that some of the roofs were painted red and some were unpainted galvanized metal with red overspray on them. In later years some cars received a black freight car cement coating as waterproofing.”

Here are few photos from George Elwood’s Fallen Flags website.
174002 black lettering with corrugated doors http://gelwood.railfan.net/nyc/nyc174002adm.jpg
174754 white lettering with 7-panel welded doors http://gelwood.railfan.net/nyc/nyc174002adm.jpg
174608 black lettering and 175608 white lettering http://gelwood.railfan.net/nyc/nyc175608ajs.jpg Note the black herald overlapping the red herald.

My HO models are all numbered in the 174000 & 175000 series. Unfortunately, most have wood roofwalks. I suppose if I was picky I could replace them, but I've got higher priorities on my layout right now. Ninety-nine percent of the people who view my layout wouldn't notice anyway.

Links don't work.

Re: non-working links.
Try deleting the "http://gelman.railfan.net" at the beginning and substituting "http://www.rr-fallenflags.org". Also note that the index page for New York Central freight equipment at the Fallenflags site has a copy of the New York Central freight car diagram book-- I haven't looked, but this might contain relevant information.