M of W Vehicles.

Might want to add HRC for HIWAY RAIL CAR.....TC for TRACK CAR....in 1965 the NYCS standardized the HRC fleet and purchased only CHECKER 4dr autos that were MFG at KALAMAZOO MI, and then equipped with FAIRMOUNT RAIL GEAR. Std color was BLACK, right from factory, and NYC oval added at COLLINWOOD where all rail equip was MAGNAFLUXED [sp] before being accepted. One of the NYC GM's was injured acct a wheel/rail came off while on rail trip. After that incident, all HRC's were inspected. LARRY BAGGERLY

TC is just a term that the Dispater uses I think what everyone is looking at is what the 2 Letters and the Bar Code on the trucks and rail equipment mean like a Spiker for excample SP2438 or Ballest Cleaner BC4526. Or havey Rail Truck G6880656

In regard to the list above.

Were there codes for single and double track Russell Snow Plows, ballast cars, side dump cars, wire train cars, etc.?

NYC really had two classes of work equipment. One group included self-propelled machines like tampers, ballast regulators, etc, that did not move in trains. The other group included anything with standard couplers and or air brakes, that could be moved in a train or could propel a train. That included locomotive cranes, snow plows, Jordan spreaders, air dump cars, etc.

The second group, car-like equipment, were simply numbered in the X-series. That included any non-revenue equipment like gondolas transferred to M of W service for welded rail trains, and crane idler cars. They were mostly maintained by the Mechanical Department.

Burro Cranes were numbered in an X- series, with a letter for the district following. They were maintained by the Work Equipment repairmen, and were overhauled at the System Work Equipment Shop in Jackson, MI along with all the equipment in the first group.

The X-398E Burro Crane was on the Eastern District in Watertown, NY. W was Western District, B was Southern District (but they had some W machines there, left over from when the Ohio Central belonged to the Western District), and M was the Northern District. The letters actually indicated Eastern, Western, Big Four and Michigan Central. By the time I was in the M of W Dept in 1963 the District designations were not important, and machines were moved over the system as needed. New York District never got a distinguishing letter, because by the time it was split off from the Eastern District it didn't make any difference.

I don't have a reference for it, but I believe the X-equipment was generally classed in lot numbers, the same as revenue cars.

As another data point, in 1966 when Dewitt was clobbered with 52 inches of snow, we had three Jordan Spreaders there to plow it out. They came from Kingston, Watertown and Ashtabula, and were numbered X-6312, X-6313 and X-6314 with no District letter following. The consecutive numbers were coincidental.

The reason for my question is that the list of MW equipment includes Flangers. Locomotive Cranes and Jordan Spreaders. All three had road numbers prefixed with an X. The X was not part of the Reporting Mark in spite of what some people believe. It was used solely to identify non-revenue equipment. A reporting mark which includes an X identifies equipment of private ownership such as Trailer Train's TTX.

That is correct. The reporting mark was NYC. The X- was part of the car number. If one of them ever went off line, it would be reported as NYC on the interchange, with an X in the car number block. Then somebody would be on the hook to explain how the car went off-line.

Only non-railroad car owners had reporting marks ending in X. That is the reason for the use of CSXT instead of CSX.