Re: PC: MU's as Coaches

[NYC4600@xxxxxxx]

It is a waste that the PC 1000 series MU's were not used as coaches once 
taken out of service.  These 100 MU's were built in 1950, and only entered 
service in 1951.  So when the M-1's arrived, they had only been running for 
21 years.

With new paint jobs, these cars would have provided the PC/MTA Metropolitan 
Region commuter trains on the Harlem and Hudson Lines with quite an organized 
and somewhat attractive fleet of diesel hauled coaches.  It is probable that 
they would have lasted as coaches into the mid-late 1980s, when the 
Metro-North Railroad began getting the 6100 series Bombardier built push pull 
coaches.

Instead, throughout the PC years, the Harlem and Hudson Line non-electric 
commuter trains looked more and more uninviting as the years went on, all 
throughout the Conrail years.  As far as the HEP goes, that is a factor as 
Peter King pointed out.  The LIRR got around it with their former MU cars 
that they converted to diesel hauled coaches when they got their M-1 
"Metropolitans", by converting former F-A and EMD F-unit diesels, into "Power 
Packs" which provided Head End Power to the train, and were used on the west 
end of LIRR trains in the same fashion that the "cab-cars" of todays 
"push-pull" commuter trains operate, with GP-38 and MP-15 diesels pushing the 
trains from the east end.  The LIRR's "power packs" and old coaches are still 
running, but the new bi-level equipment and "diesel-computer" (as I refer to 
the new locomotves that are showing up on lines across the U.S.  What ever 
happened to the good old PC type days when the engineman threw back the 
throttle, the diesels kicked in, and the train was off?) locos are already 
showing their face to Long Island commuters.

We also have to remember that in the PC Metropolitan Region, in the years 
after 1972, when the MTA began paying PC for the operation of these commuter 
trains, much of what was done with equipment and stations was due to the MTA. 
 So one would figure why the MTA would convert former MU's to coaches on one 
of the 2 commuter railroads they operated (the LIRR), and a few years later, 
when the other railroad they paid for the operation of (the PC Metropolitan 
Region commuter trains), and also bought new MU cars for, they would instead 
go out and by second hand former long distance coaches and run them.  It just 
doesnt make any sense.  And while the PC Metropolitan Region is now known as 
the MTA Metro-North Railroad, and is today even more close as far as 
operations go, to the MTA Long Island Rail Road, the two STILL order 
DIFFERENT equipment.  The MNCR (ex-PC Metropolitan Region) continues to order 
regular single level push pull coaches (though now with center doors, 
ugghh!!!), and P-32 "Genesis" diesels from GE, while the LIRR continues to 
order bi-level push pull coaches, and DE-30 and DM-30 diesels from EMD.  Too 
bad however, modifications werent done on the ex-PC 1000 series MU's to turn 
them into regular coaches.  Maybe some would have gotten preserved this way, 
and the years that PC and the MTA ran the Metropolitan Region would have 
looked a little bit nicer to passengers than they did.

John W.