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J G Brill

Bullet

Bullet
Photo: Peter Van den Bossche · CC BY-SA 2.0 · source ↗

The Bullet was a streamlined electric multiple unit passenger car produced by the J. G. Brill Company in Philadelphia for the Philadelphia and Western Railroad (P&W) in 1931, and then similar, somewhat smaller single-unit, single-end versions were built for the Fonda, Johnstown and Gloversville Railroad in 1932. Few were sold because of the Great Depression and the public transport decline in the 1930s. However, some of the P&W cars ran for almost 60 years while later being under SEPTA.

Text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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The first American railroad car in a wind tunnel

The Bullets were a result of a broad research program. This program was led by Philadelphia and Western's vice-chairman W. L. Butler, who had been largely responsible for development of the Cincinnati and Lake Erie Railroad's Red Devil car design, in collaboration with the J. G. Brill Company. Unlike the Red Devils, the Bullets had all-aluminum bodies. Their design was improved over earlier styles of railcars after a lot of wind tunnel research – the first in the American railway industry – the Bullet was streamlined to minimize the air resistance. According to Felix W. Pawlowski of University of Michigan, this would save 40% or more of the energy required by the conventional type of passenger car at speeds in excess of 60 mph (97 km/h). They also developed an improved low-level bogie (truck) design, and the Bullets could run as multiple-unit trains. Like the Red Devils, the Bullets had four 100-horsepower (75 kW) motors. The Bullets as built for the P&W were longer at 55 feet (17 m) and a bit heavier at 26 short tons (24 t), but with only about half the weight of typical railcars of that time. The P&W cars operated exclusively off of third rail, while the FJ&G cars used 600 V overhead wire and trolley poles with trolley wheels.

A forerunner of the high-speed trains

The Bullet was a forerunner of today's high-speed trains, of which the first were inaugurated later in the 1930s. Among other trains, the Japanese Odakyū 3000 series SE Romancecar was inspired by the sleek and streamlined Bullets. In 1957, the Romancecar set a speed record for narrow-gauge trains of 145 km/h (90,1 mph). The Bullets are called "ancestors of the TGV, Eurostar, AVE, ICE, Shinkansen, and the Acela Express" (in English, the first Shinkansens were named Bullet Trains) and they are also strikingly similar to Germany's Fliegender Hamburger. The Bullets' maximum speed was 92 miles per hour (148 km/h), though one reached 100 mph (160 km/h) while testing extended-wheelbase trucks. No grade crossings. The P&W was originally conceived to be a Class I railroad which would compete for east-west traffic with the Pennsylvania Railroad. Already in 1907, the P&W had laid trackage with a quality unseen before by an interurban – free from grade crossings with both railroads and roads, and with a color-light block signal system, like most Class I railroads of the era. Nearly the entire line was double track to improve safety and capacity. To further utilize the Bullets' potential, more improvements were made to track and signal systems to permit extremely high speeds on the Norristown line. In a test run one of the cars traveled the 13.5-mile (21.7 km) P&W line from Norristown to the 69th Street Terminal in Upper Darby in 11 minutes while in regular passenger service they cut express schedule timings by 1/3, from 24 to only 16 minutes including stops, running at 80–90 mph (130–140 km/h) P&W bought ten double ended, multiple-unit Bullets. Brill later built an eleventh replacement unit. Five shorter 47 feet (14 m), single ended, single-unit Bullets with a slightly different f

Preservation

In total, seven Brill Bullets have been preserved, with the majority on display in museums. All other units have been scrapped. Nos. 203, 207, and 208 are at the Seashore Trolley Museum. No. 205 is at the Rockhill Trolley Museum and, modified with trolley poles, is the only operating Brill Bullet. No. 206 is at the Electric City Trolley Museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and is on display just a few feet from the UP Big Boy steam locomotive at Steamtown. No. 209 is at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in Washington, Pennsylvania. No. 125 is owned by the Utah State Railroad Museum. No. 127 is at the Southern California Railway Museum. No. 128 is part of the Art City Trolley restaurant in Springville, Utah, but is barely recognizable as a Bullet. The body of No. 204 was at the National Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri, but scrapped.

Sections adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0); text is shortened. Read the full article for the complete history and citations.

More photos

Bullet
railfan 44 · Public domain · source ↗

Sources