Movements of specific express freight service cars

[OldEastRR]

Did the cars of the specific express services various railroads operated (Merchandise, Pacemaker, TimeSaver, etc) ever travel off their home roads? Or were they in captive service only to that RR's freight depots? This is other than REA cars.

[thomasjmdavis]

There is some info here on the NYC
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/13/t/167058.aspx

I think some of the cars eventually entered the regular freight pools in their "Pacemaker" "Merchandise" etc colors.  The poster in the link above states that the original Pacemaker cars were not interchanged, and had no capacity (CAPY) markings.  So, it might be conjectured that a car in the LCL scheme with CAPY markings would be a car later in life, that was at that point in interchange service.

I also have vague recollections of seeing a photo of a PRR Merchandise car in a mail train. Of course, the photo may also have been misidentified- perhaps it was a Merchandise train that happened to be transporting some express equipment, or a transfer move.  But does lead me to wonder if any of the cars carried steam lines for such use.

[prr7161]

Canada Southern

http://www.canadasouthern.com/caso/NYC-MODELS-FREIGHT-PAINT.htm

gives 1952 for adding stencils to Pacemaker cars, making them eligible, at least, for interchange.  As LCL service was declining during the '50s I would assume some of the LCL cars crept offline.  Once those services ended in the late '50s, of course, those cars were just more boxcars and could go anywhere carrying their LCL paint schemes (until repainted).

[nscalbitz]

In general, all my [historical railroad research and] reading has shown that these home-road-stations dedicated services stopped being express and exclusive within 5-10 years of introduction.

In some cases they found they could do it better with/ through other express services. Some roads changed paint jobs quickly, demoting from express to standard service OR in some cases I recall, other specialised dedicated service. From East coast to West, many of the special paint jobs were later seen in standard freights.

FWIW, davew

[OldEastRR]

Thanks. I have a mix of railroads of these cars and wanted to keep them all on the layout.