PRR Tubular Keystones
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ค. 2024
- There’s a little known trend that a handful of railroads partook in during the middle of passenger rail’s decline in the late 50s, as small, lightweight coaches were trialed on new passenger trains to look more sleek and to lighten the amount of wear on increasingly worse tracks. Not to be outdone by their northeastern neighbors, the Pennsylvania Railroad worked with the Budd Company to create a unique combination of coaches with lightweight design with a low center of gravity, but were not articulated and were hauled by an existing engine. Only eight of these coaches were built, as they had a somewhat mysterious career after brief passenger service on the Pennsy, as they were some of the last coaches to be constructed by Budd before the formation of Amtrak. This, is the little known story of the Pennsylvania Railroad's Keystone coaches, also known as the Tubular Train.
Credit for all photos used go to their respective photographers.
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Music Used in Order:
Jazz Mango - Joey Pecoraro
A Trip Around The Moon - Unicorn Heads
Hello Mr. Princeton - Otis McDonald
Fantasyland - Quincas Moreira
Me waiting for the tubular cars to come out in HO scale: (it's never gonna happen)
Pinned because Pennsy fan commenting on a Pennsy fan's video about the Pennsy.
@@Pensyfan19 pennsyception
@@pennsyrailfan By the way, today's your lucky day because...
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@@Pensyfan19 yoooo can't wait to spend 5k for a full set
Agreed - but - maybe Rapido will take up the challenge.
I rode on the Keystones on the NEC between Washington DC and Philadelphia in the late 60s. The ride quality gave new meaning to the term “rock and roll.”
Nicely done with good research and images.
4:04 Pennsy cars and the Twin Towers! EPIC!! And great time stamp.
I remember in the movie 2018 film The Commuter. The Metro North fictional EMU in that film look like they are based of the Pioneer passenger car and mix with Njt Arrow iii emu features.
Totally tubular! I never knew these cars existed, so thank you for the education.
YES! A video on these funny fellas!
Thank you for getting this video out. I ran a train in an RO Scale game with these and was wondering what the hell these were.
Great video 👍Enjoyed watching these captures
Quick clarification regarding the EMU derivatives:
In 1958, the PRR ordered six new EMUs based on the Pioneer III design, which were thus named Pioneer III. They were incompatible with older rolling stock due to their innovative rectifier controls. These were the last new passenger equipment acquired solely by the PRR using its own funds.
In the early 1960s, the city of Philadelphia financed the acquisition of a new set of EMUs of a derivative design for both the PRR and the Reading (as well as the last-ever order of RDCs for the Reading's remaining unelectrified services). These were initially referred to simply as "Silverliners". However, the original six EMUs were subsequently retroactively dubbed "Silverliner I" with the newer cars classified as "Silverliner II". The two classes can be relatively easily distinguished by looking at the side doors. Silverliner II doors do not extend into the roof at all.
These two types of cars were not compatible-the Pioneer III/Silverliner I used conventional knuckle couplers and MU hoses while the publicly financed "Silverliner II" featured new automatic couplers that integrated air brakes and MU connections into the coupling mechanism. The older cars also had smaller motors, which meant that they accelerated slower, creating further complications in a possible mixed consist. This status as a small batch of inferior, incompatible, oddballs lead to their (comparatively) early retirement in the early 1990s.
Philadelphia subsequently helped finance a THIRD batch of EMU, appropriately dubbed the Silverliner III. However, bidding led to this batch being contracted out to Saint Louis Car Co. instead of Budd. SLCC ran massively behind schedule, leading to this batch being referred to as "Lateliners". In order to avoid patent infringement, SLCC did not use a tubular body structure like the earlier batches. This can be seen in the photograph at 8:00-the second car back in the train has a more angular, boxier, appearance, with a distinctive seam between the car side and the roof. As the photograph demonstrates, the Silverliner III was compatible with the Silverliner II.
Finally, in the mid 1970s, a fourth, significantly larger, batch of EMUs arrived to replace the bulk of the older PRR and Reading EMUs. The Silverliner IV was immediately distinguishable through the massive hump/"blister" on its roof for its dynamic braking system, as well as an obvious plug in the middle of the car intended for future replacement with central doors to speed up high-level boarding (but never used). It, too, was compatible with the prior two classes of Silverliner (but not the Pioneer III/Silverliner I).
The three classes continued to operate together in service until the end of the 2000s, when the now-elderly Silverliner II and Silverliner III were finally retired. The Silverliner IV, however, continues in service (now approaching its 50th birthday!) at the time of writing, with no immediate, definite, plans for replacements in existence as of July 2024 ("wish-list" line-items in the long-term budget being the only evidence of said replacements existence).
Thank you for providing the history of the silverliner classes.
Imagine if it had taken off, it might have saved passenger service on the PRR.
Great documentary covering these interesting cars!
Excellent program
Nicely done
Adam
Brooklyn ny
I knew these cars existence before because of Northeast Corridor Train Simulator (Roblox) which they have a gamepass set featuring a GG1 with its rake of Keystone coaches
Another interesting, comprehensive and informative video. Nice work.
Those are some tubular cars, dude.
Actually pretty interesting stuff to see. Especially as most modern trains in Europe now deploy the same overall design with a low floor center of the carriage. The main difference here though is that the doors are in the lower part of the carriage to enable level boarding with the lower platforms across Europe. The newest examples being the Railjet 2 sets by the Austrian state railways ÖBB.
Maybe weird thing to say, but they kind of remind me of Shikishima's dining and lounge cars. With stairs down and high ceilings, not very common :O
I only knew about those cars thanks to the Northeast Corridor Simulator game by Roblox.
The pioneer III trucks were modified and used on the SPV-2000 self propelled replacement for the RDC.
The Detroit Diesel Engines under the car drive the trucks .
Just one thing. The GG1s weren't HEP compatible. They only had steam boilers. Amtrak had to create HEP cars when they accepted the Amfleets in the 70s.
The Keystone trainset had its own HEP (two diesel generators in the first car), so the fact that the GG1s weren't HEP compatible is irrelevant.
@@sadams12345678 But the video implies that they were, rendering the HEP car redundant: "as even though it wasn't needed due to the excessive power"
Therefore, this is a valid correction to make.
the pennsylvania worked with their good *bud*
the *budd* company
0:15 dollar store emd
tried to watch this video on my tv on TH-cam but get black screen :( desktop video worked i restarted my tv TH-cam on tv works now
Here me out😈
This guy completely ignores the fact that Pennsylvania is called the Keystone state which is why the Amtrak Keystones are named like that.
The narrator (myself) is completely aware of the fact, as the Pennsy's logo is also a Keystone for this very reason. It's just a fact that was implied since the Keystone has a very strong presence in the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Nice video but could hardly understand you cause you talked so fast .
Closed captions are available to understand each word, and the video speed can also be adjusted to be played back slower or faster.