Favorite or best electric passenger trains or interurban cars

[daveklepper]

Mine:

1. North Shore Electroliner
Speed, railfan seat, great looks, flexibilitiy, friendly crews

2. PRR-NYNH&H Senator
Beautiful all Budd consist to parlor obs at rear with tail sign. GG-1, and often an EF-3. Hel Gate Bridge view of Manahattan

3. Indiana Railroad Highspeeds, with the Liberty Bell (Philly-Allentown) a taste of what it must have been like that I actually rode.

4. Philadelphia & Western, later Red Arrow, "Bullets".
No technological marvel (not even roller bearings!) but fast and great visual design

5. It must have been absolutely wonderful to have been a regular commuter on Pacific Electric's one-round-trip a weekday passenger service that used the PE President's private parlor car (he was one of the regular commuters).

What are yours?

[Anonymous]

I certainly agree with the P&W Bullets. I would add my other favorites.

1. The Metroliners when they were new.

2. The Silverliner II, especially on that nice long PRR run to Coatsville or the RDG run to West Trenton.

3. The now gone South Shore modernized commuter coaches

[Randy Stahl]

I like the stuff with "K" type control and truss rods, lots of varnish. The Indiana interurbans are appealing , although I will admit I have a certain weakness for the North Shore and the Milwaukee Electric.
Randy

[Overmod]

I loved the PRR (and PC) MP-54s wherever I had the chance to ride them, from the PJ&B to the Chester line. (I might have changed my view if I'd had to commute from Trenton to New York or Philadelphia on them regularly, of course!)

Similarly, the late rebuilds of the heavyweight Reading cars -- 1920s technology with vacuum-fluorescent digital speedometers!

And the Lackawanna heavyweights: fast and quite comfortable.

I remember being quite impressed traveling on one Silverliner consist in the late '70s or so, standing up in the rear vestibule during a thunderstorm, watching the speedo routinely climb above 100mph... Between Local Stops! (I don't think even in Indiana they got this trick to work regularly... ;-})

Let's not leave out subway cars: IND R1s in particular, with their very distinctive (and eminently MP-54-like, come to think of it) gear howl in the last few years NYCTA ran them.

ANYTHING behind a GG1 was delightful to me, especially some of the Trenton-service trains with the P70s... dark velour, bronze seat pedestals, and a perfectly smooth, quiet ride; the only cars I could fall asleep in when traveling between New York and Philly...

[jeaton]

Let's give it up for the Traction Faction.

Although I was walking around when most of this stuff was running, I don't have much to add. I would go with Dave's #1, an add a recollection of a pretty smooth ride. Coming back to Chicago after a pretty busy weekend, I remember dozing off about when we got up to speed and not waking up until we were up on the "L".

Did the Washington-New York run a couple of times back in the '60s, enjoyed to trip, but had no thought that the PRR would be long gone by the next time I got on those rails. I have made a couple of short trips on "the room below the parlor" and I know this won't be a popular choice, but that is a pretty impressive way to travel between Washington and Baltimore. I'd even forgo a ride on the company jet for that trip. (Well, maybe not, but since there is no company or jet...)

Jay

[Anonymous]

Those Darn*** Brenda Italian cars in Shaker Hts Ohio. Articulated and cushy padded seats.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

As a lifelong Chicagoan, my first choice is none other than the Electroliners. What else could run at 90 MPH and still shoehorn itself into the tight clearances of the L.

Second choice is a toss-up between South Shore's air-conditioned and stretched rebuilds and their current fleet. I used to be a regular South Shore rider (25-ride tickets were a regular purchase) so I appreciate the current fleet.

Beyond Chicago, I would also consider the M-1/M-1a's of LIRR and Metro North.

[daveklepper]

By "the room below the parlor" do mean Acela? I'm not familiar with "the room below the parlor."

I also have many fond memories of MP-54's and the Reading green mu's and modernized Reading "Bluebirds." The both had the distinctive 25Hz propulsion system 50Hz groans when accelerating (twice the electric current frequency for the sound frequency), but the MP54's were even more pronouneced. I rode them all over the place, commuter service from New York to Jersey and Trenton, Philadelphia suburbs, including West Chester and Chestnut Hill, and of course the dinky to Princeton from Princeton Junction. But for real funky mu's how about the New Haven's steel open platform mu's last used on the New Canaan shuttle? That is the only place I rode in them although as a youngster I did see them in Grand Central. But for best and most favorite I'll still stick with the five I mentioned.

Does anybody remember the SP parlor car operation I posted. I never saw it, just read about it possibly in Steve McGuire's columnn in RAILROAD MAGAZINE. I know the in-town LA terminal was the elevated multi-track terminal also used by Watts Locals and Long Beach and most other services. (The other terminal was the "Subway" used by Glendale-Burbank. PCC's and 5050 modernized cars.) But was the other end "Catalina Dock"? The line was basically kept for heavy electric freight service but the PE Presdent lived at the end of the line and commuted on the car to and from work and it carried regular commuters as well. If anyone knows anyone who actually rode the service, more details would be appreciated.

The Indiana Railroad cars used the Cincinnati and Lake Erie "Red Devels" as prototypes, but they were even better (I have read) and were multiple unit. Based on my considerable experience on the ex-C&LE cars on the Philadlephia, 69th Street - Norristown - Allentown run, I'd say they performed as well as any of the best of the modern light rail cars. They did have roller bearings, magnetic track brakes, automatic acceleration, excellent airbrakes, comfortable leather seats, and a john. Of course, if you don't mind limiting the top speed to about 50 mph, most friends feel that a PCC is also the equal of anything new. And most New York fans believe the one real PCC subway train, the BMT's Bluebird built by Clark and St. Louis, was the best subway train ever and better than anything since. Me, although I probably rode those R-1's (actually R-1's through R-9's) more often than just about all other rapid transit cars combined, my favorite subway cars will always be the Stillwell designed BMT steels, sometimes generally called "B-Types" but officially "A's, B's, BT's, and BX's) depending on number in a unit and one trailer or all motor units (1914). Like all Stillwell designs (the first being the (1905) Erie steam-hauled coaches) they were way ahead of their time and lightweight for their time and size and capacity.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

I will disagree vehemently with those New Yorkers concerning PCC rapid transit equipment. The BMT Bluebird was easily topped by CTA's 1-50 and 6001-6720, an entire fleet of PCC rapid transit cars that lasted on the L into the 1990's.

[Paul Milenkovic]

As a kid, the biggest treat growing up in Chicago was to ride the L train on that jump seat right up in the front opposite the control cab -- I mean that was a cab ride for the price of a CTA fare. That ride was just the coolest thing short of a roller coaster (lots of acceleration and breaking, both for stops and very sharp curves).

The one thing I wonder is that the motormen (that was what the operators were called) would give the controller handle a mighty yank everytime they left a station or exited a curve, and the train would give a mighty lurch, leaving all of the standing passengers to grab for the hand rails. I thought these things were derived from the PCC car, and the PCC car famously had a multi-step controller to allow for very smooth starts. Was this kind of a CTA tradition. I recently rode on Philly SEPTA "heavy rail" MU cars, and they were operated for very smooth starts and from where I sat (old habits don't go away), I could see the operator make small adjustments to the power control handle.