Pioneer III (railcar)
Encyclopedia
The Budd Company
Pioneer III electric multiple unit
(m.u.) coach was delivered in 1958 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.
, where most Class I passenger railroads were electrified. Only six were ever built for the Pennsylvania Railroad
's electrified Harrisburg
-Philadelphia service. They were the first all stainless steel bodied EMU railcar built in North America.
-Washington, D.C.
and New York City-Chicago
services. Seating on the Pioneer III was in two rows of 25 with a control cab located on each end. 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. The Pioneer III car had an advertised speed of 100 m.p.h., but in actual operations ran at speeds of around 80–85 m.p.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. The original numbers were 150-155. The even-numbered cars had 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 bearing railroad bogie
designed for high-speed operation. This truck would see continued use by Budd on its subsequent Silverliner order, as well as MUs ordered by the Long Island Rail Road
and Metro North
, PATCO rapid transit cars and the Amtrak
Amfleet
cars, where they would operate up to speeds of 125 mph. The Pioneer III cars used a slightly different right-angle gearbox (adapted from the very successful Budd built PTC/SEPTA M-3 transit cars) set the traction motors at a right angle to the axle instead of the more common lateral placement. The need for a larger traction motor resulted in the change to the more traditional layout in the Silverliner II design.
The control system consisted of a step-down transformer connected to an AC-DC rectifier
powered by mercury arc ignitron tubes
. The DC output was then fed into a camshaft motor controller
which provided for smooth acceleration. No dynamic braking
system was fitted. Power was collected from a diamond-shaped pantograph
. The traction components were similar to the New Haven Railroad
's 4400 series "Washboard" cars made by Pullman Standard.
The thin stainless steel carbody combined with the lightness of the traction components resulted in the Pioneer III 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.
tacked onto the same order; all 55 were purchased using funds provided by the newly-formed Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority
.
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 "Silverliner" MU car order from the St. Louis Car Company
, the first (1963) "Silverliner" delivery became the "Silverliner II" cars and the 1967 order, the "Silverliner III." Although still officially called the Pioneer III, these cars were retroactively given the "Silverliner I" designation. As part of the Penn Central merger, the cars were also renumbered, out of sequence, to 294-299. By that time, the three disc-braked cars, together with all of the PRR Silverliner IIs, had been retrofitted with tread brakes, with which the Silverliner IIIs came equipped.
During the 1974-75 delivery of the "Silverliner IV" cars from General Electric
the Pioneers were renumbered 244-248 (the 249 had been wrecked and retired by that time) so they would not conflict with single Silverliner IV units numbered PC 270-303. Much later, after purchasing a number of push-pull
trainsets in 1987, SEPTA possessed a sufficient number of Silverliner II, III and IV MU cars to retire the Pioneer III/Silverliner I cars. Retirement finally came with the spring timetable change on April 1, 1990 due to a requirement by Amtrak that all locomotives and self-propelled railcars operating on the Northeast Corridor be equipped with a new type of train control, a result of a 1987 train collision
. Until 2000, the cars were kept in storage near Wayne Junction
. Although there were plans to convert the cars into locomotive-hauled coaches, SEPTA finally decided to dispose of the fleet due to the expense it would have taken to deal with PCB
s in the transformers and the lack of ADA
compliance. One car was destroyed in an accident. Three of the cars were sent to the AAR
/FRA
test site in Pueblo
, Colorado
for use in crash tests, while the remaining Pioneer III/Silverliner I cars were donated to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania
in Strasburg
.
Budd Company
The Budd Company is a metal fabricator and major supplier of body components to the automobile industry, and was formerly a manufacturer of stainless steel passenger rail cars during the 20th century....
Pioneer III electric multiple unit
Electric multiple unit
An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages, using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a number of the carriages...
(m.u.) coach was delivered in 1958 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.
Northeastern United States
The Northeastern United States is a region of the United States as defined by the United States Census Bureau.-Composition:The region comprises nine states: the New England states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont; and the Mid-Atlantic states of New...
, where most Class I passenger railroads were electrified. Only six were ever built for the Pennsylvania Railroad
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
's electrified Harrisburg
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Harrisburg is the capital of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 49,528, making it the ninth largest city in Pennsylvania...
-Philadelphia service. They were the first all stainless steel bodied EMU railcar built in North America.
Description
Measuring roughly 85 feet in length and 10 feet in width, the Pioneer III coach resembled the stainless steel coaches used by the Pennsylvania Railroad for its premier New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
-Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
and New York City-Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
services. Seating on the Pioneer III was in two rows of 25 with a control cab located on each end. 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. The Pioneer III car had an advertised speed of 100 m.p.h., but in actual operations ran at speeds of around 80–85 m.p.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
Paoli, Pennsylvania
Paoli is a census-designated place in Chester County near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It is situated in portions of two townships: Tredyffrin and Willistown...
or Wilmington
Wilmington, Delaware
Wilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware, United States, and is located at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley...
for maintenance. The original numbers were 150-155. The even-numbered cars had 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 bearing railroad bogie
Bogie
A bogie is a wheeled wagon or trolley. In mechanics terms, a bogie is a chassis or framework carrying wheels, attached to a vehicle. It can be fixed in place, as on a cargo truck, mounted on a swivel, as on a railway carriage/car or locomotive, or sprung as in the suspension of a caterpillar...
designed for high-speed operation. This truck would see continued use by Budd on its subsequent Silverliner order, as well as MUs ordered by the Long Island Rail Road
Long Island Rail Road
The Long Island Rail Road or LIRR is a commuter rail system serving the length of Long Island, New York. It is the busiest commuter railroad in North America, serving about 81.5 million passengers each year. Established in 1834 and having operated continuously since then, it is the oldest US...
and Metro North
Metro north
Metro North can refer to either of* Metro-North Railroad, a commuter railroad serving parts of New York and Connecticut in the United States* Dublin Metro#Metro North, a branch of the proposed Dublin Metro, in Dublin, Ireland...
, PATCO rapid transit cars and the Amtrak
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971, to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union...
Amfleet
Amfleet
Amfleet is a series of intercity railroad passenger cars built for the operator Amtrak by the manufacturer Budd Company in two series during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Today, Amfleet cars are used extensively throughout the Amtrak system outside the western United States...
cars, where they would operate up to speeds of 125 mph. The Pioneer III cars used a slightly different right-angle gearbox (adapted from the very successful Budd built PTC/SEPTA M-3 transit cars) set the traction motors at a right angle to the axle instead of the more common lateral placement. The need for a larger traction motor resulted in the change to the more traditional layout in the Silverliner II design.
The control system consisted of a step-down transformer connected to an AC-DC rectifier
Rectifier
A rectifier is an electrical device that converts alternating current , which periodically reverses direction, to direct current , which flows in only one direction. The process is known as rectification...
powered by mercury arc ignitron tubes
Ignitron
An ignitron is a type of controlled rectifier dating from the 1930s. Invented by Joseph Slepian while employed by Westinghouse, Westinghouse was the original manufacturer and owned trademark rights to the name "Ignitron"....
. The DC output was then fed into a camshaft motor controller
Motor controller
A motor controller is a device or group of devices that serves to govern in some predetermined manner the performance of an electric motor. A motor controller might include a manual or automatic means for starting and stopping the motor, selecting forward or reverse rotation, selecting and...
which provided for smooth acceleration. No dynamic braking
Dynamic braking
Dynamic braking is the use of the electric traction motors of a railroad vehicle as generators when slowing the Locomotive. It is termed rheostatic if the generated electrical power is dissipated as heat in brake grid resistors, and regenerative if the power is returned to the supply line...
system was fitted. Power was collected from a diamond-shaped pantograph
Pantograph (rail)
A pantograph for rail lines is a hinged electric-rod device that collects electric current from overhead lines for electric trains or trams. The pantograph typically connects to a one-wire line, with the track acting as the ground wire...
. The traction components were similar to the New Haven Railroad
New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad
The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , was a railroad that operated in the northeast United States from 1872 to 1968 which served the states of Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts...
's 4400 series "Washboard" cars made by Pullman Standard.
The thin stainless steel carbody combined with the lightness of the traction components resulted in the Pioneer III 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.
History
Although the Pioneer III design was advanced for its time, operating headaches and a ready stream of available GG-1 locomotive-hauled coaches spelled a premature end to the Pioneer III coaches in long-distance passenger service. In 1963, as part of an effort to improve commuter rail service in the Philadelphia area, the PRR contracted with the Budd Company to build a more advanced version of the Pioneer III design. Using the Pioneer III as a model, the new "Silverliner", as the stainless steel MU coaches were called, differed greatly from the Pioneers. They all had fabricated trucks with air springs and disc brakes, more powerful traction motors, two rows of ceiling lights, improved air-conditioning, the use of a "spear" coupler in place of the "knuckle" design and a sleeker T-shaped (Faiveley) pantograph in place of the diamond-shaped pantograph. The new cars also were equipped with air-cooled solid-state (silicon diode) main rectifiers, which had been successfully retrofitted onto the Pioneer IIIs in place of the water-cooled ignitron rectifiers. Thirty-eight Silverliner cars (201-219, 251-269) were built for the PRR, with 17 nearly identical cars (9001-9017) for the Reading CompanyReading Company
The Reading Company , usually called the Reading Railroad, officially the Philadelphia and Reading Rail Road and then the Philadelphia and Reading Railway until 1924, operated in southeast Pennsylvania and neighboring states...
tacked onto the same order; all 55 were purchased using funds provided by the newly-formed Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority
Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority
The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority is a metropolitan transportation authority that operates various forms of public transit—bus, subway and elevated rail, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolley bus—that serve 3.9 million people in and around Philadelphia,...
.
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 "Silverliner" MU car order from the St. Louis Car Company
St. Louis Car Company
The St. Louis Car Company was a major United States manufacturer of railroad passenger cars, streetcars, trolleybuses and locomotives that existed from 1887–1973, based in St. Louis, Missouri.-History:...
, the first (1963) "Silverliner" delivery became the "Silverliner II" cars and the 1967 order, the "Silverliner III." Although still officially called the Pioneer III, these cars were retroactively given the "Silverliner I" designation. As part of the Penn Central merger, the cars were also renumbered, out of sequence, to 294-299. By that time, the three disc-braked cars, together with all of the PRR Silverliner IIs, had been retrofitted with tread brakes, with which the Silverliner IIIs came equipped.
During the 1974-75 delivery of the "Silverliner IV" cars from General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
the Pioneers were renumbered 244-248 (the 249 had been wrecked and retired by that time) so they would not conflict with single Silverliner IV units numbered PC 270-303. Much later, after purchasing a number of push-pull
Push-pull
Push–pull may refer to:In electronic technology:*Push–pull output, type of electronic circuit*Push–pull converter, in electronics, is a type of DC to DC converter that uses a transformer*Push–pull connector, an electronic cable connector...
trainsets in 1987, SEPTA possessed a sufficient number of Silverliner II, III and IV MU cars to retire the Pioneer III/Silverliner I cars. Retirement finally came with the spring timetable change on April 1, 1990 due to a requirement by Amtrak that all locomotives and self-propelled railcars operating on the Northeast Corridor be equipped with a new type of train control, a result of a 1987 train collision
Chase, Maryland rail wreck
The Chase, Maryland train collision occurred at 1:04 pm on January 4, 1987, on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor main line in the Chase community in eastern Baltimore County, Maryland, United States, at Gunpow Interlocking, about northeast of Baltimore...
. Until 2000, the cars were kept in storage near Wayne Junction
Wayne Junction (SEPTA station)
Wayne Junction is a SEPTA Regional Rail station located at 4481 Wayne Avenue, extending along Windrim Avenue to Germantown Avenue, bordering the Nicetown and Germantown neighborhoods of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.-Station:...
. Although there were plans to convert the cars into locomotive-hauled coaches, SEPTA finally decided to dispose of the fleet due to the expense it would have taken to deal with PCB
Polychlorinated biphenyl
Polychlorinated biphenyls are a class of organic compounds with 2 to 10 chlorine atoms attached to biphenyl, which is a molecule composed of two benzene rings. The chemical formula for PCBs is C12H10-xClx...
s in the transformers and the lack of ADA
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is a law that was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1990. It was signed into law on July 26, 1990, by President George H. W. Bush, and later amended with changes effective January 1, 2009....
compliance. One car was destroyed in an accident. Three of the cars were sent to the AAR
Association of American Railroads
The Association of American Railroads is an industry trade group representing primarily the major freight railroads of North America . Amtrak and some regional commuter railroads are also members...
/FRA
Federal Railroad Administration
The Federal Railroad Administration is an agency in the United States Department of Transportation. The agency was created by the Department of Transportation Act of 1966...
test site in Pueblo
Pueblo
Pueblo is a term used to describe modern communities of Native Americans in the Southwestern United States of America. The first Spanish explorers of the Southwest used this term to describe the communities housed in apartment-like structures built of stone, adobe mud, and other local material...
, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
for use in crash tests, while the remaining Pioneer III/Silverliner I cars were donated to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania
Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania
The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania is a railroad museum in Strasburg, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.The museum is located on the east side of Strasburg along Pennsylvania Route 741...
in Strasburg
Strasburg, Pennsylvania
Strasburg is a borough in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. It developed as a linear village along the Great Conestoga Road, stretching about two miles along path later known as the Strasburg Road...
.