Wheels of Time N: New York Central Clerestory 70-ft Baggage-Express Car #8725

Rebuilt by Beech Grove Shops in 1940-42. Retired in 1968.  These NYC cars were often interlined on western trains to the Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal carrying express.

 As construction techniques for carbuilding and track & roadbed improved, car capacity increased from 60-ft to 70-ft, nominally measured at 74 feet over the coupler faces or 70 feet between the end sills. These cars were used for carrying express packages, pre-sorted mail, and passenger luggage from the 1920s to the advent of Amtrak. In mail & express service (M&E), they were interlined with connecting railroads to provide seemless service.

One could find CN cars on Grand Trunk Western trains rolling into Chicago's Dearborn Station. Texas & Pacific cars could be seen on their parent road Missouri Pacific, and on Southern Pacific trains west of El Paso to LAUPT. There is much photographic evidence of New York Central cars driving into LA by way of RI-SP, ATSF and UP.  By the 1960's, railroads increasingly relied on M&E traffic to offset dwindling passenger ticket revenues. The express business in U.S. known as Railway Express Agency (REA) was theequivalent of today's UPS or FedEx. The REA provided express shipment and door-to-door service on trains using such cars as these and with a fleet of delivery trucks. REA's roots are partly in Wells Fargo & Co Stage Lines, which gave it's name to today's bank. The REA ended in bankruptcy in 1975. 

Features: Extra fine details, crisp paint & printing, sliding baggage doors, nicely weighted for the runner, new adjustable draft gear and 6-wheel truck with 36" metal wheelsets, MT Couplers.