PRR MP54

In 1906, during the PRR construction project to build tunnels under the Hudson and East Rivers and build Penn Station, the PRR announced that all new passenger cars would be made of steel and that wooden cars would not be allowed in the tunnels due to the hazard of fire.[8] A design for a steel suburban car with a 54 ft (16.46 m) passenger compartment, 64 ft (19.51 m) overall length, and 72 seats was already under development,[9] along with one for a corresponding passenger-baggage combination car. Anticipating that many of the cars would eventually be used in electrically powered multiple-unit (MU) services, the cars were designed to accommodate electrical equipment[10] and were designated MP54 where the M is for motor and the P is for passenger.[11]

Additional types of these cars were developed, all with the same overall length, body shape, and characteristic round end windows often referred to as porthole or owl-eyed windows and large roof-level headlights.[6][12] The passenger-baggage combination cars (52 seats) were designated MPB54. In 1911, baggage cars with 62 ft (18.90 m) baggage compartments were added and designated MB62. In 1913, baggage-mail cars with the same dimensions were added and designated MBM62. In 1914, passenger-baggage combination cars with longer baggage compartments and 40 seats were added and designated MPB54B. In 1915, passenger-baggage-mail combination cars with 24 seats were added and designated MPBM54.

The first group of MP54 cars was delivered to the PRR subsidiary Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) in 1908 which was already operating a 650-volt DC electrified service to terminals on Long Island with its fleet of MP41 cars.[13] Some were used for a while in non-electrified service until the East River tunnels were completed allowing service into Penn Station. Simultaneously, the same electrical system was being installed for use in the Hudson River tunnels and west to Manhattan Transfer, just east of Newark for use by the PRR proper.

Between 1908 and 1915 the LIRR received a total of 225 MP54 type DC powered coaches and 65 other powered MP54-type cars. To supplement these, between 1915 and 1927 a total of 230 T-54 class trailer cars were added to the fleet along with a further 320 DC powered coaches between 1920 and 1927. Finally in 1930 a final batch of 45 MP54 coaches were delivered, resulting in a total fleet of 626 coaches, 15 baggage cars, 52 combines and 230 unpowered trailers for a grand total of 923 MP54 type cars in service on the LIRR.

The LIRR MP54 coaches came in three general styles. Classes MP54, MP54A and MP54A1 were delivered with a "railroad" style clerestory roof. Classes MP54B and MP54C were delivered with a smooth, "arch" roof. Finally the MP54D and MP54D1 classes were former steam coaches converted to electric operation with clerestory roofs. Unlike the later PRR cars, the LIRR units were primarily constructed by American Car and Foundry with a few made by Pressed Steel Car Company or Standard Steel Car Company.

In 1910, the PRR received its first group of MP54-type cars. Six of the coaches and two of the combination cars were provided with DC electrical equipment, and the rest were for service in trains pulled by steam or electric locomotives.[14]

Penn Station opened September 8, 1910, with service to Long Island points being provided by LIRR MP54 cars.[15] PRR service out of Penn began November 29, 1910 primarily using electric locomotives. The eight electrified PRR MP54 cars were used for shuttle service between Penn Station and Manhattan Transfer, an island station that facilitated passenger transfer with PRR trains going to or from Exchange Place in Jersey City. This shuttle service ended in 1922, and the cars were sent to the LIRR.[16]

In addition to the cars built for the PRR and LIRR, the West Jersey and Seashore Railroad (which later became part of the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines) received a small fleet of eighteen 650 V DC powered MP54 cars for use on its electrified interurban line between Camden, Millville, and Atlantic City in 1912. These cars, officially classified as MP54D, came equipped with both third rail and also trolley poles for the segments of the line that made use of overhead lines. These cars were used until electrified service on the PRSL was ended in 1949.[17]

In late 1912, PRR engineers recommended large-scale electrification of PRR lines with alternating current (AC) at 11,000 volts and 25 cycles, starting with the suburban service along the Main Line between Philadelphia and Paoli.[18] This project was authorized soon thereafter.[19] In 1914, the PRR started adding AC electrical equipment to 93 MP54-type cars at the Altoona shops[20] for use in this service. Each car received a pantograph, a transformer, a power truck, a motorman's cab and controls at each end, and MU circuits. These cars were then designated MP54E to distinguish them from non-electrified cars.

The Paoli line opened with electrical service in 1915 with great success, and other Philadelphia suburban lines were electrified in succeeding years. By 1933 the entire PRR line from Philadelphia to Penn Station had been provided with AC electrification and the lines from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. and Harrisburg were subsequently electrified as well. MP54 cars then provided local service throughout this area. Large numbers of MP54 MU cars were obtained both by electrifying existing non-electrified MP54 cars and by purchasing and building entirely new cars. As improved electrical equipment was developed in later years, a numeral was added to signify the type of this equipment.[21][22] Between 1926 and 1930 a further 144 cars were delivered from PRRs main shops in Altoona, Pennsylvania and Standard Steel in the class MP54E2. Between 1932 and 1937, a total of 46 married pairs were constructed by Altoona that consisted of an unpowered trailer (designated T) that was towed by a motor car (designated E3), with 736 total horsepower compared with the normal 400: 34 (MP54E3+MP54T) + 4 (MP54E3+MBM62T) + 8 (MPB54BE3+MP54T).[21] These special trailer motors could be identified by a small golden keystone above the number on the side of the car. They also had larger louvers on the side due to the greater demand for cooling air.[5]

In time it was apparent to better distinguish between the non-electrified and electrified cars aside from the letter E, thus it was decided to make the initial M be a "small" capital letter for the non-electrified cars.[23] Small capital letters are awkward to use, so many books[24][25] have used the LIRR scheme of omitting the initial M for the non-electrified cars (P54)[11] while less commonly a lower-case m is used instead of the small capital (mP54).[26]

In 1950, faced with the need for expensive new equipment for unprofitable suburban service,[27] the PRR decided to extend the life of the MP54 cars instead of buying new equipment. The MP54s were rebuilt at PRR's Wilmington, DE electric shops with an initial batch of fifty 450-horsepower (340 kW) cars in the class MP54E5.[28] A follow-up batch of fifty 508 hp cars in the class MP54E6 were rebuilt at the Altoona shops (for unknown reasons, the designation MP54E4 was skipped). In addition to the new, more powerful propulsion gear, other new equipment was installed including roller bearing equipped equalized trucks, new windows, and recessed transit-type lighting[29] In 1951 there were a total of 481 AC MP54 cars of all types in service,[30] consisting of 405 MP54, 42 MP54T, 10 MPB54B, 9 MPB54, 7 MB62, 4 MBM62, and 4 MBM62T cars.

MP54s in Philadelphia suburban service at Wilmington, Delaware

Conrail-operated units entering Washington Union Station in March 1978

The MP54 cars ran from 1915 until 1981 on many lines, through many years of PRR service and into Penn Central, Conrail, New Jersey Department of Transportation, and then SEPTA and New Jersey Transit service. They wore several PRR Tuscan paint schemes as well as Dark Green with white lettering in PC times and a few were painted in white with blue and red stripes during the SEPTA era. Three cars transported train crews and other railroad employees from Washington, D.C.'s Union Station to the Ivy City yards in the blue and white scheme of the Washington Terminal. The MU coaches were assigned to commuter service along both the Keystone Corridor on the Main Line and the Northeast Corridor. They were also found on the Perth Amboy and Woodbridge Railroad taking passengers to and from South Amboy, New Jersey where the New York and Long Branch Railroad began. A set of MP54 cars also served as the shuttle between Princeton Junction[32][33][34][35] and Princeton, and was known to generations of Princeton students, faculty, residents and visitors as the "dinky" or the "PJ&B" (Princeton Junction and Back). For many years a single car was used on a run between South Amboy and Trenton via Jamesburg, mainly to transport high school students. For popular events, particularly the Army-Navy football games in Philadelphia, MP54 cars were used to make up some of the special trains to provide the needed transportation.[7][36] During World War II, the PRR was often short of passenger equipment on weekends so trains of MP54 cars were used as advance sections of long-distance trains in the electrified PRR area.[7][37] During these years, the PRR also used solid trains of MB62 and MBM62 cars to carry express from Penn Station to various locations.[37] In the days of Penn Central the MP54s ventured onto former New Haven tracks solely during railfan charters, in particular a June 14, 1970 fantrip from Penn Station to New Haven which included the New Canaan Branch.

Steam-hauled P54 cars served well into the 1950s alongside their MU siblings. While these cars were more commonly seen in commuter service in the Pittsburgh area, they were also used over the entire PRR and perhaps even off-line in troop train service during World War II. Also during this time, several combine style cars were converted to completely coach seating by the addition of seats and porthole windows to the baggage and mail sections.[38] Two of these converted cars were sold to the Buffalo Creek and Gauley Railroad after the war.

At some point during the Penn Central era, several cars were de-motored and used in commuter service behind a GG1 locomotive. A single pantograph was retained on one of the cars to provide heat and lights.

• PRR coach 413 is stored intact as part of the United Railroad Historical Society of New Jersey collection.[39]
• PRR coach 427 is stored intact as part of the URHS collection, awaiting sale.[40][41]
• PRR coach 437 is stored intact as part of the URHS collection, awaiting sale.[40][41]
• PRR coach 441 is in active (demotored) use, painted for the New York Central, on the Delaware and Ulster Railroad[42]
• PRR coach 442 is in active (demotored) use, converted into an open-bench car on the Wilmington & Western Railroad.[43]
• PRR coach 444 is in active (demotored) use, painted for the New York Central, on the Delaware and Ulster Railroad[42]
• PRR coach 447 is in active (demotored) use, painted for the New York Central, on the Delaware and Ulster Railroad[42]
• PRR coach 450 is stored intact on the Wilmington & Western Railroad.[43]
• PRR coach 453 is stored intact as part of the URHS collection, awaiting sale.[40][41]
• PRR coach 542 is currently abandoned derelict (and is missing trucks and underfloor equipment) in Hiltons, Virginia, at the intersection of 709 (Mandolin Drive) and 712 (A P Carter Hwy).[44]
• LIRR coach 1149 is displayed intact as part of the Central New York chapter of the National Railway Historical Society collection.[45]
• LIRR combine 1398 is preserved as the Port Jefferson Station/Terryville Chamber of Commerce office in Port Jefferson Station, New York.[46]
• LIRR coach 4137 is stored intact as part of the Seashore Trolley Museum collection although in need of extensive restoration.[47]
• LIRR coach 4153 was part of the Connecticut Trolley Museum collection[48] but was reported by a museum official to have been de-accessioned in 2022.[49]
• Four MP54s of unknown origin serve as passenger coaches on the Walkersville Southern Railroad.

Unpowered MP54 cars (and/or combines and baggage mail cars) were built for or sold to a number of other railroads. These included AT&SF (Santa Fe), B&M (Boston and Maine), Erie, Lackawanna, NYS&W (New York Susquehanna and Western, Susquehanna), Piedmont and Northern and Tuckerton. Additional road names reported as possible: CR (Conrail), Union Transportation (Pemberton & Hightstown), Midland Continental (combine), Consolidades de Cuba and the Ligonier Valley Railroad.[50]

In 1907, prior to the purchase of its MP54D's, the West Jersey and Seashore Railroad expanded its wooden interurban fleet operating its electrified service from Camden to Atlantic City and Millville with an order of porthole-window cars, designated MP2. These were still of wooden construction, but came with stronger steel ends, had passenger compartments 46 ft (14 m) long, overall length 55 ft (17 m), 58 seats, and were otherwise similar to the MP54 design. Later some of the original all-wooden MP1 cars were upgraded with steel ends matching the MP2 cars.[51]

The Hudson and Manhattan Railroad obtained some cars with porthole windows in 1911, designated MP38, for their line to Newark. The cars were partly owned by PRR, were painted in PRR colors, had 46 foot passenger compartments, 48 ft (15 m) overall length, 44 seats, and had additional center-entrance doors. The H&M cars not operated over PRR trackage to Newark had the more common square windows.[52]

• Baer, Christopher T. "PRR Chronology:A General Chronology of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, Predecessors, and Successors and its Historical Context". Archived from the original on July 7, 2009. Retrieved October 12, 2009.
• Ball, Don (1986). The Pennsylvania Railroad, 1940s-1950s (2nd ed.). Chester, Vermont: Elm Tree Books. ISBN 978-0-393-02357-2. Distributed by W. W. Norton, New York.
• Bezilla, Michael (1980). Electric Traction on the Pennsylvania Railroad, 1895–1968. University Park: Penn State University Press. ISBN 978-0271002415. OCLC 5336721.
• Carleton, Paul (1982). Under Pennsy Wires. River Vale, New Jersey: D. Carleton Railbooks.
• Cudahy, Brian J. (2002), Rails Under the Mighty Hudson (2nd ed.), New York: Fordham University Press, ISBN 978-0-82890-257-1, OCLC 911046235
• Cudahy, Brian J. (2003). A Century of Subways: Celebrating 100 Years of New York's Underground Railways. New York: Fordham University Press. ISBN 0-8232-2292-6.
• Dill, Tom; Grande, Walter R. (1994). The Red Electrics: Southern Pacific's Oregon Interurban. Edmonds, Washington: Pacific Fast Mail. ISBN 978-0-915713-28-8.
• Ford, Robert S. (1977). Red Trains in the East Bay: The History of the Southern Pacific Transbay Train and Ferry System. Interurbans Specials. Vol. 65. Glendale, California: Interurbans Publications. ISBN 978-0-916374-27-3.
• Hulick, Charles (Autumn 2000). "A Brief History of the Pennsylvania Railroad MP54 Multiple-Unit Cars". The Keystone. 33 (3).
• James, William (Winter 2010). "Pennsylvania Railroad MP54 Multiple Unit Cars". The Keystone. 43 (4).
• Middleton, William D. (1983). "2 The Heavyweight Steel Cars Part 15 Northwestern Pacific's Aluminum Suburbans". Traction Classics. Vol. 1 THE INTERURBANS The Great Wood and Steel Cars. San Marino, California 91108 U.S.A. ISBN 978-0-87095-085-8. LCCN 83-18482.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Middleton, William D. (2001) [1974]. When the Steam Railroads Electrified (2nd ed.). Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-33979-9.
• Middleton, William D. (2002). The Pennsylvania Railroad under Wire. Classic Trains. Waukesha, Wisconsin: Kalmbach Publishing. ISBN 978-0-89024-617-7.
• Staufer, Alvin F. (1962). Pennsy Power: Steam and Electric Locomotives of the Pennsylvania Railroad 1900-1957. Carrollton, Ohio: Standard Printing and Publishing. ISBN 978-0-944513-04-0.
• Staufer, Alvin F.; Pennypacker, Bert (1968). Pennsy Power II: Steam Diesel and Electric Locomotives of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Medina, Ohio: Alvin F. Staufer. ISBN 978-0-944513-05-7.
• Staufer, Alvin F. (1993). Pennsy Power III: 1847-1968, Steam, Electric, MUs, Motor Cars, Diesels, Cars, Buses, Trucks, Airplanes, Boats, Art. Medina, Ohio: Alvin F. Staufer. ISBN 978-0-944513-10-1.
• Treese, Lorett (2006). Railroads of New Jersey: Fragments of the Past in the Garden State Landscape. Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0-8117-3260-4.
• Volkmer, William D. (1991). Pennsy Electric Years. Edison, New Jersey: Morning Sun Books. ISBN 978-1-878887-01-6.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to PRR MP54.

• PRR Motor Passenger diagrams