New York Central 38

New York Central #38

The NYC-38 is a full length tavern lounge car with daytime seating up to 52 people. 32 in the lounge area and 20 at tables. The NYC-38 has a small kitchen for light refreshments.

History:

The NYC-38 was aquired by our chapter in 2001. The NYC-38 was built by the Budd Company in 1947. The New York Central Railroad placed an order with Budd for 13 cars in March 1944. The 13 Cars were part of the Budd Job number 9808-004. The cars were built as Tavern Lounge Cars with seating for 47. Four of the cars were wrecked in the 1960's (36, 42, 35, and 41). Car 42 was retired in 1967 and later scrapped. Car 45 was retired in 1964 and sold to the James E. Strates Shows. The remaining eight cars were merged into the Penn Central System with numbers in 4400 series. Our Car was PC4438. Two cars, including ours were sold to Amtrak in 1976 and ours became Amtrak 3346. The remaining five cars were sold to New Jersey Department of Transportation for commuter train use. Both Amtrak cars (including ours) were placed in work train service by Amtrak, the NYC-38's Amtrak number was 10310. Our car had five lounge seats removed in 1966 and replaced with coat and luggage racks for use as a parlor car. The original Tavern Lounge cars were built for 13 planned daytime Streamliners throughout the New York Central System. They would run in conjunction with the 13 Observation Parlor cars. Based on an internal (NYC) memo dated December 8, 1943, the 13 Streamliners would run: Cleveland & Cincinnati, Cleveland & St. Louis, Pittsburgh & Buffalo, New York & Buffalo, Boston & Albany, Cleveland & Chicago, Pittsburgh & Detroit, Chicago & Cincinnati, and New York & Montreal. (History by Wesley F. Ross)

Below are 2 pictures of the New York Central 38.