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Train Equipment
Train 720. The six multiple-unit (MU) cars of train 720 were of steel construction and had been built between 1924 and 1926. The cars operated in pairs, with a motor car and a trailer car forming a semipermanent unit. The first car of 720 was a trailer car. A vestibule with side doors was located at each end of each car. The operating controls, which did not include a speedometer, were in the end vestibules of each pair of cars. (See Figure 3.)
Each car was 72 feet 7 inches long, 10 feet 6 inches wide, and 13 feet high, and could seat 84 passengers. The motor cars weighed about 142,000 pounds each, and the trailer cars weighed about 88,600 pounds each. Neither car was radio-equipped.
Traction motors were mounted on each of the four axles on each motor car, and the major electrical components were mounted under the car floor. Pantographs on the motor cars collected the 1,500-volt current from the overhead catenary system. The trailer cars had no electrical propulsion equipment. The train brakes were electropneumatic, with cast—iron brake-shoes.
Both the motor cars and the trailer cars had automatic tightlock couplers which included two air lines and a 32—wire electrical trainline connector. The rear of the coupler yoke was attached to the car by a radial connection hung beneath the underframe, and the front of the coupler was supported by a coupler carrier swung under the center sills. Except for the coupler, there was no anti—climbing feature on either the motor cars or the trailer cars.
The cars of train 720 were constructed prior to the establishment of Federal regulations for MU equipment and the couplers, the anti-climbing arrangement, and the collision posts did not comply with the requirements in 49 CFR 230.457.
Train 416. The Highliner cars were self-propelled, electric MU cars in which passengers were seated on two levels. Each car was 85 feet long, 15 feet 10 inches high, and 10 feet 6 inches wide, and weighed about 134,000 pounds. (See Figure 4.)
