MP54 Multiple-Unit Electric Cars -- Pennsylvania RR & Penn Central RR

Here's one you've not likely heard before. My Dad worked for the PRR, he was a car inspector on graveyard. We had a family pass and on a trip back home from the Franklin Institute 10 year old me drove the Media local from 49th St to Gladstone. Apparently I was something of a natural because I had the throttle while Train Driver Jack as I called him caught a smoke on the other side of the cab. That's not the best part though. When Dad got up around 6 that evening of course I'd waited all day to tell him. In standard Dad fashion his response was somewhere between "yeah right and get a job kid". Until he looked up to see my sister behind me saying "he really drove the train". I learned some new words that day, like liability among others, but I don't think my Dad got mad at me which was the usual sop, for many kids in 1970. It sure was a thrill, would loved to have become a train driver, but Dad was convinced SEPTA would be the ruination of the railroad back in 80. Good call Dad.

Another amazing electric train. It is another beautiful train.

I remember riding these from Metuchen, NJ to Newark, NJ and back on shopping sprees back in the early 60’s. They were rocking and rolling and some of the windows actually worked😀

Grew up watching these fly by along Glenwood Avenue in North Philly in the 1970s. Time has definitely flew by…fewer of these were seen after 1981. Yes, it’s bringing back some memories of the 30th Street Station back then.

These are terrific...thanks! Subscribed and a thumbs up!!

This brings back soooooooooooo many Great memories growing up in Media, Pa in the 60's/70's and seeing the MP54's at Media Sta and Moylan Rose Valley Sta. Thanks so much for this video tassiebaz!

Your slideshows are superb. Great, colorful photos.

Great photos!

I remember train watching along the NEC between Arbutus and Halethorpe, MD back in the 1960s and '70s. An afternoon MP54 commuter train would come up track 4 on the return trip from Washington to Baltimore. It would stop at Halethorpe to let some passengers off. I believe there were also stops made at Frederick and Edmondson Aves. within Baltimore City on the west side. Enjoyed hearing the hum of their electric motors when they would start off.

I rode these many times on the Paoli line, boarding at Overbrook Stn.

Thanks for the slides again! Are you familiar with the PRR's Trenton Cutoff? As a kid growing up in Feasterville right off Buck Road, I could hear the horns for the Bustleton Pike grade crossing. We moved there in 1952, when I was five. I even saw electric box-cabs hauling trains on this all-freight line. And even though I never saw it, several times I heard this whistle from a steam engine! This had to be all before 1954 or 55. I remember the whistle had this high-pitched wail, as the Reading's (Iron Horse Rambles) sound was much deeper. If you ever come across photos of this line in the 1960's (when the GG-1's and later the E44's were hauling these long freights), I would love to see you post some. Thanks,

cool

Nice video. Good pictures of the old locomotives. However some jazz could've been nice in the video.

The MP54's in a variety of layouts were also the backbone of the Long Island Railroad. See if you can gather a slideshow of those cars, too.

Hey, Tassiebaz…..why did the MP54s and their Reading RR cousins (including the Blue Liners) growl and rattle when starting out from a standstill? The other thing they did was produce a cloud of blue, oily smoke behind them.

I just noticed. The PRR cars look as though they had manually opening side doors; the Conductors had to open them by hand. If I remember correctly the LIRR cars had sliding side doors that the conductor opened with a key inserted into an opening mechanism. Am I correct?

They had a set sitting in croton Harmon NY but recently removed them. I wonder what happened to them

Wish there was footage of these moving

it's is 1947 GE MP54 LUXURY TRAINS

I take the PRR system everyday to work. Starting at NY Pennsylvania Station and ending in Newark Pennsylvania Station. It’s so sad to me how such a great RR was left to rot into nothing from the 50s to 70s. They could never compete with the trillions of dollars spent on roads and airports. There should have been more tolls and higher gas tax. Why people were allowed to drive mostly anywhere for free boggles my mind. Thee government should have spent more on commuter rail and city rail. NYC Has a system that is bursting at the seams and has had almost zero new lines built in decades. All those thousands of parking spaces created by tearing buildings down throughout the city are gone now and people have to take the trains. Even the old PRR and Erie lines are still using the single rail tunnels into and out of the city. No new tunnel since the first built 1910 or so.