Noob with an MP54 question

Hey guys, my name is Bailey Chang, and I live in Atlanta, GA, though I'll be making my way up to Cornell starting this fall, so maybe I'll get a chance to do some freight railfanning up there.

I've long had an interest in railroads, especially passenger operations like the modern-day NJT (and the Penn Central that preceded it) etc. I really respect the community you guys have built up and hope one day to contribute my small bit to it.

Anyhow, my question regards our owleyed friends, the MP-54 cars. Does anyone have a video or audio clip of one of these things? I've always wondered what they sounded like when they were rocking and rolling with windows open at a blazing 50 miles an hour before I was born.

FAMO wrote:Hey guys, my name is Bailey Chang, and I live in Atlanta, GA, though I'll be making my way up to Cornell starting this fall, so maybe I'll get a chance to do some freight railfanning up there.

I've long had an interest in railroads, especially passenger operations like the modern-day NJT (and the Penn Central that preceded it) etc. I really respect the community you guys have built up and hope one day to contribute my small bit to it.

Anyhow, my question regards our owleyed friends, the MP-54 cars. Does anyone have a video or audio clip of one of these things? I've always wondered what they sounded like when they were rocking and rolling with windows open at a blazing 50 miles an hour before I was born.

They were noisy, especially when starting out. The Reading and the New
Haven green MU's were also noisy starting out with the big AC traction
motors.
I don't know of any remaining AC equipment that you could compare this
with, it had a sound all of its own.
Noel Weaver

I grew up less than one mile from the Lansdowne, Pa. station of the Phila-Media-West Chester line of the PRR ( now SEPTA's R-3--but only as far as Elwyn). I could lie in bed at night and hear, not only the whistle as the MP-54 trains crossed Wycombe and Union Aves, but the traction motors as the train accelerated away from the Lansdowne station. I got so that I could tell what direction the train was travelling by whether the traction motor sound was ascending or descending ( Ascending was East Bound- leaving the station, descending was Westbound- slowing for the station).

If you were IN the station, and there was a train standing there, the first sound was the "tweet-tweet" of the signal whistle, then a thunk and a deep growl as the traction motors began to accelerate the train out of the station and an ascending whine from the motors as the train picked up speed. You would also hear the train whistle ( a different whistle from the signal whistle) as the train crossed Wycombe Ave., and hear it again at Union Ave before the train passed out of range.

In motion, at "speed', the whine of the traction motors was the dominant sound, however, track noise was almost equally as loud, especially passing under bridges, and there were assorted thunks and bangs from the bolsters and car members. Since the cars did not have vestibules, you could watch the car in front of yours ( unless you were in the first car) bounce up and down as the train passed over irregularities in the track bed.

There were PC playing cards, available in the snack bar coach train from Rensalaer to Boston on 4/4/71. There was PC soap in the NYC All Room Sleeper Coach out of Buffalo at 10:00 p.m. the night before. I can't remember what was in the roomette of the Federal from Boston that night. It did have a shiny insulated cold water holder, and I was told not to drink the water from the tap of the PRR sleeper.
The introduction of Metroliner service was delayed enough and started off slow enough to allow repainting of the cars before they were actually used in revenue service. I rode a Metroliner Parlor Car in 1970 or '71 and the plastic condiment cups said TWA on the bottom! Trans World Airlines supplied the food at that time. The plastic beverage tumblers may also have been marked that way.
Metroliner fare Philadelphia to Washington for that trip was $10 coach, $16 parlor, which included a $1 or $2 surcharge, at least in coach.

[Sorry for the misplacement of the previous reply, it was for the Metorliner thread.]
Even in the 1930s, relatives called the Paoli Local cars the "Red Rattlers". I thought that the started off with a "grind", especially Westbound out of Wynnewood, uphill and on a curve! In 1969, I remember saying that they would grind and vibrate for a couple of seconds before starting to move. It was quite a difference to ride in the front car at speed if it was a trailer, quiet and rather smooth on the new welded rail.