SEPTA (ex-PRR) MP-54s

SubwayTim wrote:While on the subject of MP-54s, I rode them just a few times when I was a kid in the early and mid 1970s, once or twice outbound from Suburban Station to Morton (on the now R3), and once also outbound from Suburban to Marcus Hook (R2). There were a couple of things I remember soundwise about the MP-54s. One is the "buzz-buzz" the conductor signals the engineer with just before the train departs a station. The one on the 54s sounded like a high-pitch whistle instead of the "buzz-buzz" we hear on the Silverliners. The horn also sounded different. I remember many times when I was a kid going to my grandparents' house in Morton and hearing the trains blowing their horns at the grade crossings. I could always tell by the sound of the horn if it was a Silverliner or MP-54 (when I was real little, my mom and I always referred to them as "The Silver Choo-Choo" and "The Red Choo-Choo" ).

The sounds may have been the best feature of the 54's. I remember being in the Lansdowne station many times- a few times during the AM rush, and more times during the PM rush. In the AM, it was common for 14 car eastbound trains to enter the station, and the length of the train would cause the lead car to stop only a few feet from the Wycombe Ave. Crossing. Of course the warning bells on the crossing gates had been tripped, so they rang the entire time the train was in the station. When it was time for the train to depart, the first sound you'd hear would be the "tweet-tweet" of the conductor's signal whistle followed by a thunk and then the growl of the traction motors as they strained to put the train into motion. Almost immediately, the train would sound its whistle in the classic long-long-short-long for the Wycombe Ave crossing and would keep sounding that signal for the Union Ave crossing one block down the track, And, if you stood in one place, you would hear the traction motors on each car as it passed. And if you really got lucky, as soon as the eastbound train had cleared, a Westbound train would enter the station. Truly memorable sounds ( and sights).

I was just at Strasburg the other day, and I was told that, unfortunately, their MP54 had to be scrapped a couple of years ago due to PCB content and deterioration. On a happier note, their Reading MU was said to be in the shops undergoing restoration right now. They are concentrating now on restoring the older wood-bodied equipment, as it needs more immediate attention than stainless-steel Budd cars ever will. Looks like it will be awhile, too, before any Silverliner IIs or IIIs get to Strasburg, as replacement Silverliner V cars are still years away at this point.

Mike Bartel
IHP
http://ihphobby.tripod.com

There's a ex-MP54 in use on the Wilmington & Western. Its been converted into a "open air" coach. It looked like the original # was painted over, so its hard to tell of its origin.

scotty269 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 08, 2007 1:42 am In twenty or thirty years, somebody is going to make a topic on a forum similar to this, asking where to find a Silverliner II. Then, there will be a response saying to go look around Wayne Junction, next to the nearly completely rusted Blueliner.

aye bruh you predicted the future

For some reason the discussion title is blank after the first few posts on this page. When I saw this as the most recent post on the SEPTA discussion, it literally said "Re: ". Does anyone know why this is happening or if this can be fixed?

Threads have their title based on the original post, and every post in the thread has the ability to have a subject per post. The earliest incarnations of phpbb posts didn't have this option for every post (the 'blank' subject posts, and if you reply to one of those posts you would get an "Re:" subject. Considering the dates of the prior posts are from 2007, not everything we enjoy, including the linking back of the quote was standard issue for forum system at that time. .