Pioneer III (railcar)

PRR MP85 / Silverliner I
In service	1958-90
Manufacturer	Budd Company
Built at	Red Lion, PA
Family name	Pioneer III
Number built	6
Formation	Single unit
Fleet numbers	PRR 150-155 PC / SEPTA 244-248
Operator	Pennsylvania Railroad Penn Central Railroad Conrail SEPTA
Specifications
Maximum speed	85 mph (137 km/h)
Weight	90,000 lbs
Traction system	Line current transformed to 1580V and fed through 4 Westinghouse WL653B Ignitron rectifiers to a DC resistance motor controller. 2 cars converted to silicon rectifier in 1961.
Power output	400 hp (300 kW) (4 x 100 hp (75 kW) )
Electric system(s)	12,000V 25 Hz AC
Current collection method	catenary
Braking system(s)	Pneumatic

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.

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 City-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.

Budd Pioneer III lightweight truck. Note non-standard right-angle gearbox.

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.

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 Company 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 PCBs 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.