Amtrak Five Year Equipment Asset Line Plan

[rcthompson04]

Nobody in the US has produced a competitive passenger railcar since the M-1s of the late 60's. That was before man walked on the moon...

The Amfleets and Superliners say hello (or do you mean competitive overseas)

The Amfleets are essentially evolutions of the Metroliners and Silverliners.

[Gilbert B Norman]

The Amfleets are essentially evolutions of the Metroliners and Silverliners.

I think a better comparison would be the running gear was evolved from the 1956 Pioneer III non-powered Coach that Budd hoped to sell as designed to the roads who were "stuck" with their passenger service. Guess what; "no takers".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_III_(railcar" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) Possible redirect from Wiki - URL links "not in love" with parentheses.

Finally, "I thought I saw somewhere", but cannot verify - therefore a RUMOR, is that the Pioneer III prototype non-powered car ended up in South America, but was landlocked when the rail system abandoned passenger train service and tore up tracks accessing it (sounds a bit like "Richard the Second" with Meigs Field).

[Tadman]

My first guess would be Brazil, as they are a solid Budd customer. In fact, they have continued to buy Budd designs from Sorefame and license them for local production. It's a shame how small their railway network is today compared to pre-1980, but it was your typical government railway running more for patronage than profit or service. The same problems were seen in Argentina. The railroad deficit was something like 1/10 of the national budget.

My other guess is Ecaudor or Peru, as I thought I once saw a really funky looking Pioneer motor car on a narrow mountain pass.

It's probably not Argentina, the only Budd product there was 12 second hand ex-Chessie cars. They are now retired and stored at backshops Escalada, looking like a forlorn broad gauge Canadian.

[Nasadowsk]

I think a better comparison would be the running gear was evolved from the 1956 Pioneer III non-powered Coach that Budd hoped to sell as designed to the roads who were "stuck" with their passenger service. Guess what; "no takers".

The Pioneer III unpowered cars directly lead to the Pioneer III EMUs (89,000 lbs ready to run!), which lead to the Silverliner IIs. The SL gained 10,000 or so lbs from GE's phase-angle propulsion system, though the PIII's was somewhat undersized (They supposedly popped transformers - an issue the Brits had with their early 25kv stock, too), and had a not very sucessful right angle drive system (which really looks like it was ripped from the RDC).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_III_(railcar) Possible redirect from Wiki - URL links "not in love" with parentheses.

FWIW, that's my scan of the promotional material. I could dig up the Westinghouse book on 'em and verify the propulsion statistics (the TM voltage seems wrong). Also, camshaft control? Hell no, it was Westinghouse Unit Switch, which was pneumatic contactors and supposedly ripped off of a post (or pre?) war LIRR MU. The thing was quite literally a DC EMU with a substation strapped to it. IIRC, the only concession was the Ignitrons shut briefly while the line breaker opened...

I love the 'citation needed', that comes right from Budd's documentation...

Finally, "I thought I saw somewhere", but cannot verify - therefore a RUMOR, is that the Pioneer III prototype non-powered car ended up in South America, but was landlocked when the rail system abandoned passenger train service and tore up tracks accessing it (sounds a bit like "Richard the Second" with Meigs Field).

Supposedly it was rebuilt into the first LIRR 'turbine car', thus beginning the US DOT's infatuation with wedging helicopter engines into trains, which only finally came to an end after the JetTrain predictably flopped hard.

[R36 Combine Coach]

The last order in the US that was purely American equipment was the M6s for Metro-North in the 90's, based on a 70's vintage design and a 60's vintage body shell. Nobody in the US has produced a competitive passenger railcar since the M-1s of the late 60's. That was before man walked on the moon...

M-6s were built by MK Hornell 1994, though shells were from Brazil (Sao Paolo, same as Alstom), but the basic shell was the M-1 in 1968. The Budd designs under license by GE/Canadian Vickers/AVCO were quite good too. The aluminum single level (Comet) coach dates to 1970 and continued in various forms to 2002 (likely owning some bit to the LIRR MP75s from 1963, in turn, with heritage in the 1955 MP72/P72/T72).