Pennsylvania RR Tubular Passenger Cars

Not that i am aware of. It would be a custom job for sure and no observation car at the end.

True, just coaches and the power car.

The PRR's Keystone ran between DC and New York starting in 1956 (?). It had 8 cars with one being the "power" car at probably around 60-65 feet in length. The rest of the cars were 85 foot long coaches. The Keystone was a low riding passenger train. The cars were labeled PENNSYLVANIA and had standard height vestibules.

You had to go down a few steps once you were in the car and you rode at a lower level than standard passenger equipment. I recall riding it from Baltimore to New York when it was rather new and it was interesting looking out at the passengers shoes at the high level platforms in Philadelphia and Newark.

You mean like these guys?;

No, they were low-profile, low center-of-gravity cars that were hauled by GG1s.  The following Wikipedia article has a picture of one of the coaches:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_(train)

Also, the individual letters that spelled out "PENNSYLVANIA" were 3-dimensional.

Interesting train, and there's a little more about the prototype here:  http://streamlinermemories.info/?p=2276

It was largely Budd's early experiment into making even lighter, stronger cares compared to their current production. The lowered floor followed the Talgo concept, but the conventional four-wheel trucks instead of the Talgo single-axle articulated design made it not much more than a modified conventional coach. It never achieved much popularity with passengers or the Pennsy; it never captured the public imagination like the GM Aerotrain, so it's probably never been a likely candidate for modeling.

Budd still learned from the design though. Building a car with a lighter frame but with more of the structural strength throughout the entire carbody made for a lighter, safer, more fuel-efficient design, and they carried that engineering knowledge through into the Santa Fe Hi-Level coaches (Which would might been far too heavy without the improved structural engineering) and in coaches, they sort of lead to the Silverliner and Metroliner designs, and of course ultimately to the Amfleet cars. The curve-sided Metroliners and Amfleets are what I'd call a truly "tubular" design.

MTH cataloged them but did not receive enough orders, so cancelled.

Ron

Is it the Lionel 6-21782 known as the Congressional set?

Fixed wiki link, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_(train)

No, the Congressional set uses normal streamlined cars.

The window line is the unique characteristic. On a normal car, the windows are in a continuous straight line along the side of the car, in line with the vestibule door windows. On the Keystone, the vestibule door windows are at normal height, but the passenger area windows are at a lower level due to the dropped floor in the seating portion of the car. So instead of a continuous line of windows, there's a "dip" in the window line.

@Jan posted:

Fixed wiki link, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_(train)

Still does not work.

@PRRMP54 posted:

Still does not work.

Poster fixed the link text but not the actual URL, which contains a "[" instead of a "("

After trying to post a corrected link:

You'll have to right-click on the link, select "copy link address", then paste the link in your browser, and change the left-bracket to a left-parenthesis--i.e. "[train)" to "(train)"-- the Forum software is corrupting the link. I tried editing out the typo and it changed back to a bracket when I re-posted this reply.

---PCJ

There is a great article in Classic Trains', "More Trains of the 1950's" issue starting on page 87.  It is the Holiday 2015 issue.  There is an article on the Santa Fe "Hi-Level" cars too.

@Rusty Traque posted:

Nope.  This is what Pennsy's tubular train looked like:

Rusty

Hey, I know those cars!  I held my wedding reception on a dinner train that had two of the coaches and the power car on it.  Sitting that low to the ground was an interesting experience.  You were almost at eye level with car drivers when you went over grade crossings.

When I was a teenager, I used to spend summertime in Morrisville, PA along the Pennsy's main line just before it crossed the Delaware River and entered Trenton, NJ.  I saw the tubular designed cars twice per day.  Southbound in mid-afternoon they were train 149, the Afternoon Keystone from New York to Washington and a quick return trip to New York as train 158, (166 on Sundays) as the Evening Keystone.  They usually were coupled to standard sized cars from the Southern Railway southbound, either the Crescent or the Southerner depending on the time of year or with Atlantic Coast Line cars northbound.

When trying to post a link that is making a pest of itself, you can put the link into "tinyurl.com" and create a...well...tiny url, and then post the result. Very useful when the target link has a zillion random characters for security reasons.

I to have never heard of this train until now. Well maybe a project for 3rd Rail. How about it Scott? I'm in for a set. Anyone else?

Mark

Me too!