For some unearthly reason, I did remember the number of a new ballast hopper car I saw at a derailment site in Milbury, Ohio, just East of Toledo. This was in the early 1960's, the cars were brand new and paint-shop-fresh (no weathering - yet). The train with these cars in tow was delivering new ballast to the derailment site.

As a matter of fact the car shown here was one of those cars, and the number, 950112, stuck in my mind. I think you get the idea and you're right. I gave them the number of the car shown in the photo along with the car type, and right there before my eyes the operator typed in the data and low and behold, the screen lit up with all known data about that car. I don't remember all the particulars, but the car (as I remember) was in St. Louis and I had no reason to doubt what I saw or what the computer said.

As a side note, this wreck happened before I started my Undergrad studies in 1961. A friend of mine and I went to the site after hearing about the wreck as nosy onlookers and with my camera at the ready. In those days, there was no one around telling you to get off Railroad property. So, we just looked and took a few pictures. What I did see as I walked the site was the picture shown below. No way of knowing for sure, but what you see in the photo looked rather suspicious to me. Notice the wheel axel and journal box.

We now move from New York City to Detroit Michigan and my first day on the job with the Northern Division. Once again, lots of things to see and people to meet. Much to my surprise, one of the places I visited was the new computer room and another "mainframe." Playing along as if I knew nothing, I asked my guide just what the system could do. You guessed it; he told me the system could find any car on the railroad if the car number and type were known. Now I was hard pressed to come up with a number since I'd already forgotten the number I used in New York. As it happened though, the Computer Room was located on the second floor of the Michigan Central building located on Michigan Ave. at the corner of Vernor Ave. The building still stands today, but (at that time - 1966) it was mostly an empty shell except for some offices occupied by the NYC, including Engineering, which I reported too. My ghost still walks the halls (I had an office on the 12th floor over looking the train shed) and I still have fond memories every time I drive by when I'm in the area. Sorry, I got off track for a minute! Having said that, I'm overjoyed to see that today someone has taken the initiative to save the structure and history by refurbishing the building into a valuable entity for the community.

Back on track again, it just so happened that the second floor view from the computer room looked right across Vernor Ave. at the old passenger car storage yard, now a parking lot, located at the opposite end of the Michigan Central building pictured here. And there it was just as clear as a bell, an old NYC baggage car, its number still very visible. Unbeknownst to my host and still looking out the window, I rattled off the car type and number (long forgotten at this writing) as he keyed in the data. Like I said, I could see the car, but he could not because he did not know I was looking out the window as we spoke. With all the confidence in the world, he continued to key in the numbers and sure enough, on the screen there were all kinds of data concerning that car.

In summary, here's what it said - "CAR TYPE - baggage, RAILROAD - NYC # 1234, LOCATION - Buffalo, New York." I'll never forget the look on his face when I pointed out the window and asked him to look at the car number on that old baggage car (original number long forgotten - a fictitious number, 1234, used for this article). Needless to say, my attention was shifted to a different activity and I never saw the man again. I often wonder how that problem was resolved. I would guess the car was moved from Buffalo to here and no one bothered to report the move let alone the car reporting marks. Where is my "GHOST CAR" today? I would guess it was scrapped and melted down like so many other Railroad items.