Would the MP54 Pantograph And 3RD Rail Versions have been compatible if coupled together? If so one can Get a one seat ride from Trenton NJ to Jamaica Ave Queens with perhaps a 5-10 minuite layover at Penn Station NY.
Alas, this one is fairly easy to dismiss.
1) If you did this, half the train would have to pull the other half dead, no matter where it was. That makes no particular sense.
2) Car lighting was not trainlined or HEP in those days, so expect one-half the cars to be dark and unheated/cooled unless you modified them.
3) Dave Klepper can probably comment on the MU control gear, but AC controller can't do anything for DC motors with no third rail, and you'd be unhappy trying to push the dead half a train up the Hudson Tunnel grade even if the DC control on the east end were capable of controlling the AC drive. To my knowledge only one AC MP54 was tested with ignitron control of DC motors, 4561 in the later '40s, and I have no idea whether this could be technically MUed with straight-DC LIRR stock.
4) "One seat ride" on an MP54 was probably overrated. Even an end-to-end transfer on ome platform between PRR and LIRR ought to be fine... for the few people going from Jersey to Jamaica! ... and all the other passengers either detraining at NYP or getting on LIRR there would benefit from the two-train approach anyway.
The point of the one-seat ride between airports, or the one-seat ride under the Hudson, is a very different question from what you seemed to be asking.
RME
The direct answer is NO. LIRR 3rd rail is 600V and the overhead cat was 24,000v.
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Cat was never 25kV (not "24") with MP54s. Those were strictly 25Hz motors, like GG1s.
I do not recall if the ones south of Philadelphia operated on 12+ kV when the 'power bump' occurred, but if so that would be the highest an MP54 would have seen.
I live in Columbus NJ. I take the Riverline to Camden then to phili via PATCO or sometimes Riverlinte to Trenton Transit Center to SEPTa to Phila or NJT to NYC. Sometimes I will go north beyond NYC to Grand Central via subway or walking. At Grand Central I will go to White plains or somewhere in CT. For me transferring to LIRR at Penn Station is not a problem but for people who don't have train experience doing that is complicated because first you have to exit Amtrak or NJT from NJ into the main concourse then walk to the LIRR section buy tickets look at the time table and report to track. Which is never the same track as an arriving NJT or Amtrak train.
alloboard Would the MP54 Pantograph And 3RD Rail Versions have been compatible if coupled together? If so one can Get a one seat ride from Trenton NJ to Jamaica Ave Queens with perhaps a 5-10 minuite layover at Penn Station NY.
Actually with a 25 Hz transformer and over running third rail shoes a version of the MNRR M - 8s would work fine on that route. Already in production and proven service.
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