Pioneer III
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PRR MP85 / Silverliner I | |
---|---|
In service | 1958–1990 |
Manufacturer | Budd Company |
Built at | Red Lion Plant, Philadelphia |
Family name | Pioneer III |
Number built | 6 |
Number preserved | 0 (2 formerly preserved) |
Number scrapped | 6 |
Successor | Budd Silverliner II/St Louis Car Company Silverliner III |
Formation | Single unit |
Fleet numbers |
|
Owners | Pennsylvania Railroad
Amtrak SEPTA |
Operators |
|
Bogies | Budd Pioneer |
Braking system(s) | Pneumatic |
Track gauge | Standard gauge |
The Pioneer III railcar was a short/medium-distance coach designed and built by the Budd Company in 1956 with an emphasis on weight savings. A single prototype was built, but declines in rail passenger traffic resulted in a lack of orders so Budd re-designed the concept as an electric multiple unit (m.u.). Six of the EMU coach design were purchased by the Pennsylvania Railroad with the intention of using them as a high-speed self-contained coach that could be used for long-distance commuter or short-distance intercity travel in the Northeast U.S.[1] The 6 production Pioneer III units were the first all-stainless-steel-bodied EMU railcar built in North America and, at 90,000 pounds (41,000 kg), the lightest.
Lightweight coach
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The Pioneer III lightweight coach (Budd serial number 3880) was completed in 1956 and was seen by the Budd Company as a milestone product that could revolutionize the passenger railcar market. With this assessment in mind, the Pioneer III name was chosen in reference to the
The Pioneer III coach concept toured numerous North American railroads as a demonstrator unit, but due to the general decline in rail passenger traffic there was little interest in new rolling stock, especially one that represented a new and untested model.
Electric Multiple Unit
Finding no takers for the Pioneer III coach, Budd re-worked the design into an Electric Multiple Unit for commuter operations by fitting a propulsion system and a vestibule type operating cab at each end. The Pennsylvania Railroad's increasingly antiquated fleet of MP54 suburban MU's prompted the railroad to order 6 Pioneer III MU's from Budd in 1958. Measuring roughly 85 feet (25.91 m) in length and 10 feet (3.05 m) in width, the Pioneer III coach resembled the stainless steel coaches used by the Pennsylvania Railroad for its premier New York City-Washington, D.C., and New York City-Chicago services. Seating on the Pioneer III was in two rows of 25 in a 3+2 configuration. Like all m.u. coaches, the Pioneer III was capable of running as a single-car train or with up to six cars total, depending on the number of passengers it was to carry.[1] The Pioneer III car had an advertised speed of 100 mph (161 km/h), but in actual operations ran at speeds of around 80–85 mph (129–137 km/h) Its knuckle-shaped (tightlock) couplers, identical to those found on the PRR long-distance trains, allowed the Pioneer III coaches to be transported to shop facilities in Paoli or Wilmington for maintenance.[1] The original numbers were 150-155 with the even-numbered cars having fabricated truck frames and disc brakes, while the odd-numbered cars had cast steel truck frames and tread brakes.
The cars used the revolutionary, and aptly named, Budd Pioneer III truck, which was a lightweight, inboard
Power was collected from a diamond-shaped
The thin stainless steel carbody and other elements of the Pioneer III design combined with the lightness of the traction components resulted in the Pioneer III MU cars being the lightest all-metal electric multiple unit railroad passenger cars produced in North America. Unfortunately there were reliability and performance issues with the small traction motors and low capacity main transformer.[citation needed]
Service history
Although the Pioneer III design was advanced for its time, operating headaches and a ready stream of available
After taking delivery of the 38 Silverliner cars, the PRR took the Pioneer III cars off intercity operations and used them exclusively on Philadelphia-area commuter service. In 1967, when SEPTA and the PRR took delivery of a second
During the 1974–75 delivery of the "Silverliner IV" cars from
Gas turbine demonstrator
In 1966 the Budd Company in cooperation with
In 1969 the GT-1 was rebuilt using funds from the
See also
Notes
- ^ ISBN 0944513050.
- ^ White (1985), p. 177.
- ^ "Lirr Gas Turbine Cars".
References
- ISBN 978-0-8018-2743-3.
Further reading
- "This car may well be it". ISSN 0041-0934.