--- In STMFC@..., Ted Culotta
<tculotta@s...> wrote:

On Nov 7, 2004, at 9:26 PM, Ron Boham wrote:

I need some help on a starting point to build a couple of NYC

express

cars which were converted from USRA steel side rebuilds.

As Andy already indicated, Sunshine makes the kit. However, they were
not from USRA box cars. They were rebuilds of '1916' double sheathed
auto cars (Westerfield makes kits for these original cars.) They were
renumbered from Lot 664-B and equipped with Symington high speed trucks.
Lot 664-B was rebuilt into steel cars from the original auto cars in
1936-7 from cars in Lots 327-9, 352, 357-8, 361, 363-6.

And furthermore,

These ten cars, when converted to express service by
NYC's East
Buffalo shops in January 1940, were assigned Lot 679-
B. The
number block for Lot 664-B allowed for up to 1000 cars,
but it's
hard to tell form the ORERs if that many were actually
done. If
not, there were surely at least 800 or so.

The only photo I've seen of Lot 679-B is the builder's
photo that
was published in Wayner's "New York Central Cars"
and also
available from NYCSHS. I've never seen one of these
cars in a
passenger train consist, nor one spotted on an express
track in a
passenger terminal. That one b&w photo shows the car
had
Century Gothic lettering, fifteen years before any other
NYC freight cars
switched from Roman to CG. Though I have not seen it
stated anywhere, I
suspect the color scheme was Dulux Gold over olive
green

Though equipped for passenger train operation, they
were listed
along with all the feight cars in the ORERs. All ten cars
were listed as
late as the 7-49 issue, and the population was
thereafter decimated down
to only two cars in 1-59. They do not appear at all in
the 10-60 issue.

Jeff English
Troy, New York