Bullet (interurban)

The P&W was originally conceived to be a Class I railroad which would compete for east-west traffic with the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad. Already in 1907, the P&W had laid trackage with a quality never seen 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 day. Nearly the entire line was double track to improve safety and capacity (the deadliest interurban wrecks were caused by head-on collisions). To further utilize the Bullets' potential, more improvements were made to track and signal systems to permit extremely high speeds on the Norristown line.[2]^:108

In a test run one of the cars covered the 13.5-mile (21.7 km) P&W line from Norristown to the 69th Street Terminal in Upper Darby in 11 minutes[2]^:70 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)

Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Co. Strafford Car on long trestle at Norristown, PA on September 28, 1969

P&W bought ten double ended, multiple-unit Bullets; Brill later built an eleventh replacement unit.[7]^:186 In addition, five shorter 47 feet (14 m), single ended, single-unit Bullets with a slightly different front and rear design were sold to Fonda, Johnstown and Gloversville Railroad (FJ&G) in 1932. P&W used a protected over-running third rail with high-level station platforms exclusively; FJ&G's Bullets were trolleys, as they had to be compatible with both street running as well as high-speed private right-of-way.

The decline of the interurban business as a result of the Great Depression of the 1930s and increasing use of automobiles and buses helped prevent any further manufacture and sale of the Bullet cars. The interurban cars, as were ordinary streetcars, were delayed by traffic congestion in the streets, too. The interurban (and railroad) companies must build and maintain their own right-of-ways while roads for private cars and buses are paid by the taxpayers of which the railroad and interurban companies were among the greatest. In addition, a group named National City Lines but led by General Motors bought streetcar and interurban companies, dismantled the infrastructure and resold the companies to new owners who committed themselves to buy and use buses – from General Motors.[8]

FJ&G's bright orange Bullets ran hourly into Schenectady where they terminated in front of the New York Central railroad station. In 1935, the FJ&G's Mohawk River bridge was condemned by New York State as too dangerous for any public transport as a result of river ice damage a decade earlier. With that, interurban service now had to terminate at Scotia across the Mohawk from Schenectady. And in 1936, the company abandoned their passenger service. The five Bullets went to the Bamberger Railroad (BR) interurban in Utah and served the line from Salt Lake City–Ogden hourly, although operating at lower speeds than on the FJ&G.[9] In 1952, however, the BR's shops burned, and the company gave up the passenger traffic on the 6th of September that year. After being retired from railroad service, many railcars - including Bullets - were sold to the public as cheap “pre-fab” buildings.[9] Some of both styles of Bullets are preserved in different museums and one is a prominent part of a restaurant building in Springville, Utah.[10]

Map of the Red Arrow Lines. Blue indicates the Norristown High Speed Line, where the Bullets ran from 1931 to 1990

If the Red Devil cars were the inspiration for the Bullets, in 1939 13 of the 20 Red Devils were sold to Lehigh Valley Transit Company (LVT), where for a time they shared the same tracks from Norristown to 69th St. Terminal with P&W's Bullets. Under the name of Liberty Bell Limited, the Red Devils ran until LVT ended the service in 1951. Other high-speed interurban trains joined the Philadelphia suburban scene also. From the North Shore Line's Chicago–Milwaukee route a pair of high-speed streamliners named Electroliners were sent eastward in 1963, after 22 years and more than 3.3 million miles (5.3 million km) each[11] – a mileage which probably surpassed any other interurban equipment. They were acquired by the Red Arrow Lines, which renamed them Liberty Liners and operated them in rush hour service on the P&W line until about 1976. In their tavern-lounge cars commuters enjoyed continental breakfast in the morning and spirits and snacks in the afternoon after a hard day's work. Different kinds of MU equipment in use on the Norristown line later resulted in the Bullets' being restricted to less busy times (weekends) when the ten of them could provide 100% of the service. Their lower profile, intended to reduce air resistance at speed included a lower anticlimber (bumper) than the other cars had, and safety rules in the 1980s forced the Bullets not to share the route with other cars.

The P&W's Bullets had a remarkably long life thanks to their building quality.[5] and P&W's excellent maintenance also contributed to reduction of wear and tear. Some Bullets survived almost 60 years, until 1990, in an active role serving commuters in the Philadelphia area as part of the SEPTA rail stock.[5] Even today, Philadelphia's light rail system, which encompassed the surviving interurban lines (see Norristown High Speed Line) is number five in the U.S. by ridership.