M&E Cars 60-65 Revisited

Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Magazine, Dec 2003 by Howes, William F Jr

The request for additional information, especially retirement dates, in Tom Dixon's feature article "C&O Mail & Express Cars 60-65" in the April 2003 issue of C&O HISTORY prompted me to do a little searching of some C&O documents that might be helpful.

My earliest complete C&O Passenger Equipment Roster subsequent to 1951 is dated January 15, 1964. None of these cars appears on that roster, including Nos. 250 (ex-60) and 251 (ex-61).

An undated (probably early 1950s) memo suggests that the series 250-257 was assigned to "military use". Mr. R.N. Begiens letter of July 3, 1956, to T.F. Burns (reproduced at right) lists cars 250 and 251 among 17 cars that are being released from the passenger fleet for conversion to camp cars. Although I do not know if this conversion actually took place, I have not seen cars 250 or 251 on any list of express cars in the active passenger fleet subsequent to Mr. Begien's letter.

As of mid-1954, there were 24 M&E cars numbered between 62 and 91 on the Chesapeake District. A description of M&E operations on the Chesapeake District issued by the Office of Superintendent Passenger Transportation, Richmond, on June 7, 1954, shows a daily requirement for 12 cars.

The remaining 12 cars were held for extra service and shop relief, particularly to protect heavy Christmas mail and express traffic, per a letter from E. M. Whanger dated March 7, 1955.

A list of shopping dates for C&O passenger train equipment dated November 29, 1956, (first page reproduced opposite) shows that car 62 was outshopped on May 18, 1956. Cars 63, 64, and 65 were last outshopped in 1952.

Correspondence dated in 1957 indicates that C&O management felt that there was likely to be a further decline in the need for the M&E cars, especially in view of the mail rate increase then pending before the ICC. A letter dated April 22, 1958, from H.T. Askew to A.W. Hix (above left) lists ten M&E cars, including Nos. 63, 64 and 65, "which we might dispose of". Presumably car 62 escaped this list since it had been through the shop in 1956.

A Purchasing Department document titled "Chesapeake and Ohio Equipment Offered For Sale" and dated July 9, 1958, (above right) includes M&E cars 63, 64 and 65. Presumably, these three cars were now gone from the roster of active passenger equipment, but I don't know the details of their disposition. I also don't know when car 62 was removed from the active roster, but it is not on the roster dated January 15, 1964.

by William F. Howes, Jr.

Documents from the author's collection