Re: PC: One that got away...

[Jerry Jordak <jer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Bob Rothrock wrote:
 
>    Spotted today (10/14/97 @ 12:10 p.m.) in the consist of a westbound
> (mixed freight) on Conrail at Mentor, Ohio:
> 
>                 Covered hopper # 51503 in yellow paint with PC logo
>                 intact, no evidence of CR stenciling. Looked like it may
>                 have been a 30 footer, but it was gone before I could
>                 read other data.

I've been seeing a number of them on the Conrail Short Line on the
south side of Cleveland. CR's probably rebuilding the Short Line, since
it's going to be the new CSX main around Cleveland.

>   You bet ! The really curious part of all this (at least to me, since I go 
> back far enough to have prowled the rails in NYC & PRR days) is how I find 
> myself scanning the consists for ANY traces of PC heritage, yet also recall 
> the absolute disdain for the PC when it happened...the hobby shops around 
> here couldn't give away anything in PC reporting marks due to the rabid 
> factionalism of the railfan community who were incensed at PC for having 
> taken away "their" Pennsy and Central circa 1968 B.C. (before Conrail)...and 
> now CR is 20+ years old and about to fade. 

While at the East Broad Top's Fall Spectacular this weekend (which
explains why I'm behind in email and web site updates), I was talking
with about half of the board of directors for the Danbury Railroad
Museum in CT. They are acquiring a caboose (can't remember what class),
and plans are to restore it to PC green. Their reasoning: even though
they're in the midst of New Haven country, they were part of PC for
8 years, and while most people want to forget those years, they still
happened and were still part of history, so they figure that it is
acceptable to remember the PC (and Conrail for that matter, since it
will be history in less than a year). 

Of course, while on my trip, I bought a Bev-Bel PC boxcar kit. The
next morning, one of the guys on the trip wanted to see the kit I
bought the next before. When he saw it, his response was something
along the lines of "It's wrong to have to see that ugly color this
early in the morning." Guess it takes all kinds....

Also, while in Altoona, I saw the 86' high cube PC boxcar in the
storage yards east of the shops. It is easily visible off of the
one highway overpass (the one that crosses the yards, can't remember
the name of the street). Someone had sent me a photo of it to scan,
but unfortunately it was overexposed, so I couldn't do much with it.
I took shots of it, so I'll try to get them posted (if they come out).
There is also a pair of 40' boxcars along the road that runs along the
south side of the yards: one in PRR, another in EL.

Oh, and speaking of Cleveland......GO TRIBE! (The horns are blowing in
celebration on the street outside my window like y'all wouldn't
believe..... :-)

Later,
-Jer 

-- 
Jerry W. Jordak               The boxcars and flatbeds, whistle blowin' steam
mailto:jer@smellycat.com      That was yesterday
http://prozac.cwru.edu/jer/   Now those big trains don't come anymore
Acts 16:31   <><                  -- Restless Heart, "Big Iron Horses"