Central Locomotive
New York Central Locomotive #4085 is a diesel electric locomotive built by General Motors, Electric Motor Division, in August 1953. It’s one of sixty E-8 locomotives bought by the New York Central during its motor-power transition from steam to diesel. The designation E-8 is a model number. Two twelve-cylinder diesel engines in the locomotive each turn a generator, providing power to electric motors on the locomotive’s axel. Thus, the term “diesel electric.” On December 3, 1967, the 4085 was the lead engine on the final eastbound twentieth century Limited, which was regarded as the nation’s premiere passenger train. The 4085 was later sold to New Jersey Transit, a commuter railroad, and was acquired by the NNYCRM in 1989.
The New York Central 3001 is a steam locomotive
The New York Central 3001 is a steam locomotive built in October 1940 by the American Locomotive Company in Schenectady, New York. Steam locomotives with four pilot wheels in front, eight drive wheels, and two trailing wheels—a 4-8-2—were called “Mountain engines” on other railroads. But the New York Central, which stressed it was the water level route in its advertising, didn’t want to be operating mountain engines on the water level route. So, on the New York Central, steam locomotives with the 4-8-2 wheel arrangement became known as “Mohawks,” taking their name from the railroad’s Mohawk division in New York State where they were first used. The 3001 was first assigned by the New York Central to operate out of Elkhart, given a model designation of L-3-A. The 3001 was designed for both passenger and freight work. Our Mohawk was retired on February 14, 1957 and was waiting on the scrap line in Cincinnati for the cutting torches when it was bought by the Texas and Pacific Railroad to replace one of their engines that had seriously deteriorated in a Dallas, Texas park. Cosmetically altered to approximate the appearance of a TMZ Locomotive, the 3001 remained in Texas until May 1984, when it was acquired by the Lakeshore Railroad Historical Foundation of Elkhart, and returned to the city where it started its service on the Central. Upon the formation of the NNYCRM here in 1987, it was leased to the museum for one hundred years.
Only surviving car of the New York Central Mohawk 3042, an L3B model
This tender, originally identical to that of the 3001's, is the only surviving car of the New York Central Mohawk 3042, an L3B model. The L3B and L3C Mohawks were follow-on class to the L3A, such as the 3001, the design purely for freight trains. The L3A's were intended for either freight or passenger service. This tender was saved and converted to large diesel fuel tank by the New York Central when the 3042 was retired in September of 1953 and scrapped the next month. The tender was used in maintenance and work train service through Penn Central days; it was later purchased by Ross Rowland, creator of the 1975-76 American Freedom Train, and used as an auxiliary water tender for Reading Railroad 484-2101 during its journey, which passed through Elkhart. From 1977-79, this tender was used on the Chessie Steam Special, a steam-powered excursion run for the Baltimore and Ohio’s one hundred and fiftieth anniversary. It was damaged in a roundhouse fire in 1979, and later donated to the museum. The warped sides are a result of the fire.
New York, New Haven, and Hartford railroad rail-dining car
New York, New Haven, and Hartford railroad rail-dining car number 953 was built in June, 1949, by Pullman Standard for the New Haven, a large railroad in southern New England. It could seat fourty-eight passengers for meals, and included the kitchen and bar at one end and the dining area at the other. The grill diner was a simple, less formal alternative to a full dining cart. To improve the ride quality, these cars were equipped with six-wheel trucks instead of the more common four-wheel trucks. When the New Haven was merged with Penn Central in 1969, the 953 was included, and when Congress created the Conrail in 1976 to bail out Penn Central and four other bankrupt Northeastern railroads, 953 went along. It was then used in maintenance service until it was donated to the museum in 1997 as part of Conrail’s donation of the Selkirk New York Wrecker Train.
New York Central Wrecker Crane X-13
New York Central Wrecker Crane X-13 was built in 1946 by the Industrial Brownhoist Company of Bay City, Michigan, one of four for the Central with a two hundred and fifty ton lifting capacity in order to handle even larger locomotives and equipment when they derailed. New York Central ordered the cranes for their yard here in Elkhart, and yards in Selkirk, New York, Collinwood Ohio, and Indianapolis. As can be seen on the wrecker boom, the X-13 was stationed in the Central Selkirk Yard. When they were built, the two hundred and fifty ton cranes were steam powered. By 1963, the New York Central converted some of its larger cranes, including the four two hundred and fifty tonners, to diesel power. With the Central Pennsylvania Railroad merger, the X-13 became Penn Central equipment, and later passed to Conrail, remaining in Selkirk. It was the last in service on Conrail’s wrecker train there. It remains operable. Conrail donated this Selkirk wrecker train, including related rail cars now here—including the Conrail caboose, a tool car, a meal car, and two other cars—to the museum in 1997. The wrecker crane from Elkhart, with an elk’s head superimposed on a red heart on its boom you’ll have to go to Pennsylvania to see; it was donated to the Railroaders Memorial Museum in Altoona Pennsylvania.
South Shore Car 15
South Shore Car fifteen was built in 1926 by the Pullman Company for the Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad. It was part of an initial order of twenty six all-steel cars to begin replacing the electric line’s wooden cars, some of which had been in operation since the South Shore’s predecessor, Chicago Lakeshore and South Bend Railway, began operations in 1908. Car fifteen was built as a sixty-foot long, fifty six passenger car. It and the similar cars to follow were fine for their time; however, with the rationing of gasoline, tires, and steel for new automobiles during World War II in the early 1940s, the South Shore’s passenger load doubled. Unable to get additional passenger cars, the South Shore came up with a somewhat unique solution: a few at a time, the almost new cars were pulled into the railroad’s shops in Michigan City and cut in two, the pieces pulled seventy and a half feet apart, and a new section fabricated to fill the gap. A sixty-foot fifty six passenger car became a seventy eight-foot six-inch eighty passenger car. Car fifteen was the first to be lengthened by that process. Together with many of her sister cars, Car fifteen remained in service until the 1980s, when the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District began acquiring new equipment to replace the pre-World War II cars. The Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District continues to operate South Shore electric passenger trains between South Bend and Chicago. The National Parks Service acquired Car fifteen after it was taken out of South Shore service and later released it to the National New York Central Railroad Museum where it is now part of our collection.
Mail and Baggage Car #1016
Mail and Baggage Car number 1016 was built in 1914 for the Michigan Central, an important part of New York Central Lines. It was built by the Standard Steel Company in Butler, Pennsylvania and was assigned to carry baggage and mail on passenger trains. One end served as a railway post office where mail was sorted en route. An arm could be extended from the door, allowing mail bags to be picked up from depots without needing to stop the train. At stations where the train did stop, if postal patrons didn’t get their letter to the post office in time for it to be taken to the depot, it could be dropped through a mail slot in the side of the car while the train paused at the station. This car was eventually converted to a work train car. In 1989, Car 1016 was in a scrap yard in Lansing, Michigan and was purchased by the Kalamazoo Lakeshore and Chicago Railroad which operated out of Pawpaw, Michigan. The car then was acquired by the Lakeshore Railroad Historical Foundation and moved to the museum, arriving in September, 1996.
New York Central Caboose
New York Central Caboose number 21084 is called a Bay Window Caboose. It has bay windows on each side instead of an elevated cupola on the top of the car. This type originated in the 1920s because they allowed increased visibility along a train’s side. New York Central introduced bay window cabooses in the 1950s as it replaced its old wooden cabooses, some of which were nearly seventy years old. Caboose 21084 was built in 1963. The new type cabooses were originally painted red like earlier cabooses, but in 1957, the New York Central introduced century green, seen here in an attempt to update the company’s image. The new color was introduced in most freight equipment.
Tank Car
This tank car, 16039, was built for the New York Central system in December, 1952 for the transportation of liquids. Most tank cars will only transport one particular liquid in their service lives because of the extra work needed to clean out a tank car to prevent contamination of a different product. Although this is only a single dome tank car, many tank cars had two or three domes which usually indicated the tank car was divided into two or three internal compartments, thus allowing transportation of several types of liquid. Many tank cars are privately owned. This car was donated to the museum by Sturgis Iron and Metal in 2006.
Ice-cooled, Milwaukee Road Refrigerator Cars
Ice-cooled, Milwaukee Road Refrigerator Cars 38662 and 38794 were built in the early 1950's to allow perishable goods such as vegetables and meat to be hauled across country. Before the days of modern mechanically refrigerated cars, these items would be transported in cars such as these. Commonly called “reefers”, they are heavily insulated and equipped with bunkers at each end. Patches in the roof allowed workers to fill the bunkers with blocks of ice to preserve the contents of the car en route to its destination—not unlike the practice, before modern home refrigerators, of keeping perishables in an insulated box in the kitchen, adding ice delivered to the home. These are super-sized ice boxes on wheels.
Conrail Caboose
Conrail Caboose number 21230 was built in July 1978 by Fruit Growers Express. Only three cabooses of this exact type were ever built; one was wrecked and another scrapped. This one was donated to the museum by Conrail in 1997. Conrail was one of the last of the major railroads that used cabooses in regular service on long-distance freight trains, keeping them rolling until the mid-1980's. This particular caboose spent its final service days as part of Conrail’s Selkirk, New York wrecker train, which included former New York Central crane X-13. The crane was also donated to the museum along with other rolling stock from the wrecker train. The train would be dispatched to derailments to help clear the tracks and restore traffic on the railroad.
Electric locomotive 4882 is a former Pennsylvania Railroad Engine
Electric locomotive 4882 is a former Pennsylvania Railroad engine. It operated in Pennsylvania’s electrified territory in the East. The 4882 is one of one hundred and thirty nine Pennsylvania Railroad locomotives, with a model designation of GG1. They were built between 1934 and 1943 at Penn C’s Altoona Pennsylvania shop. They were highly successful passenger locomotives geared to run at one hundred miles per hour. 4882 was built in February, 1939. When King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, parents of Britain’s present Queen Elizabeth, visited Canada and the United States that year, the 4882 pulled a special train, pulling them from Washington D.C. to New York City. The king rode in the cab of the GG1 as it pulled his train from Washington. Industrial designer Raymond Loewy, who designed many Studebakers and a number of other well-known products, created the GG1’s distinctive appearance. The GG1's were famously durable locomotives, most surviving an active service forty years after construction, and the 4882 carried on in commuter and express passenger service—always on former Pennsylvania Railroad lines as the northeast railroad scene changed. It became a Penn Central locomotive following the merger of the Penn C. and the New York Central, and then a Conrail engine when that railroad took over the Penn Central. No longer used by the Conrail, it was sold to New Jersey Transit in 1979. The 4882 continued in commuter service for NJ Transit until the 29th of October, 1983 when she became the last GG1 to run on her own power. With the locomotive sporting a new paint job to spruce it up for its final day of operation, a magazine writer was prompted to write, “All day Saturday, the passage of the 4882 could be noted by the odor of fresh paint.” The 4882 was acquired by the NNYCRM in 1989.
New York Central Crane 28
New York Central Crane 28 is a 1920's example of the Central’s common smaller wrecker cranes. It was based in the Harmon Yard at Croton-on-Hudson, New York where electric locomotives replaced diesel and steam locomotives on trains heading into New York City. Crane 28 has a lifting capacity of one hundred and fifty tons, which is less than the railroad’s larger cranes, but it was more mobile, and useful for smaller derailments. Cranes of this size were also commonly used in railroad construction projects and maintenance work. Like most cranes built before the 1960's, 28 has a boiler and is steam powered. It is no longer operable. Crane 28 was donated to the museum in 1993 by New York area commuter railroad, Metro North, which operates on former New York Central tracks north out of New York City.
Rock Island
The streamlined observation car now painted and lettered as New York Central equipment is actually Chicago Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Observation Car number 454, the Minnesota. The Minnesota was built in 1937 by the Budd Company; it was one of six twenty-eight-seat combined coach, lounge, and observation cars ordered by the Rock Island for their new Streamline Rocket passenger trains. Minnesota was frequently used on the Kansas City rocket from Minneapolis to Kansas City. The Rock Island converted this car into an instruction car for employees in 1965. It was later acquired by the previous private owner on the property that became the National New York Central Railroad Museum and used by a restaurant that operated here.
