page_title: Budd Silverliner
section_title: Design
hierarchical_section_title: Budd Silverliner / Design
caption_attribution_description: English: Interior of a Budd Silverliner II showing the leatherette decor applied to cars 259, 269, 9012 and 9015 in place of the standard "Ketchup and Mustard" styling.
context_page_description: The Budd Silverliner was a model of Electric Multiple Unit railcar designed and built by the Budd Company with 59 examples being delivered starting in 1963. Fifty-five of the cars were purchased for the Reading and Pennsylvania Railroads with public funds for use in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, area commuter rail service with the remaining 4 cars being purchased by USDOT for use in high-speed rail experiments in 1965. Based on a series of 6 prototype Pioneer III cars built in 1958, the Silverliners represented the first production order of "modern" commuter MU equipment purchased by either railroad and earned their name from their unpainted stainless steel construction which contrasted with the painted carbon steel bodies of the pre-war MU fleets. The cars became a fixture of SEPTA Regional Rail service providing the name to their entire series of EMU railcars before finally being retired in 2012 after 49 years in service.
context_section_description: The design of the Budd Silverliner was based on a lightweight stainless steel body and frame coupled to an advanced AC/DC rectifier propulsion system and new lightweight, high-speed trucks. While largely identical to the earlier Pioneer III's, differences included a single-arm Faiveley pantograph, a state-of-the-art propulsion system that made use of solid-state phase angle controllers coupled to mercury arc ignitron rectifiers, higher-powered motors, a higher-capacity main transformer, multi-function couplers and disc brakes.  One result of these upgrades was that the Silverliners were incompatible with the six Pioneer prototypes.  Passenger amenities were also identical to the Pioneer III cars offering riders air cushion suspension, air conditioning, electric train heat and a nearly silent acceleration and braking.  With 150 hp (110 kW) more than the Pioneer III cars (550 hp or 410 kW total), the Silverliners could achieve a 1.7 mph/s (2.7 km/(h⋅s)) acceleration rate, which was far higher than the older MP54s and a top speed of 85–100 mph (137–161 km/h) compared with the 55–65 mph (89–105 km/h) of the MP54 fleet (which was not often reached in service).  Inside, the cars were equipped with 25 rows of 3+2 reversible (flipover) bench seating with 124 usable seats and either a bathroom or an additional 3-person bench seat. The seats were initially furnished in a dark gray diamond-patterned foam rubber "plush", which began to wear out by the mid-1970s. Four cars (#259, #269, #9012 and #9015) were experimentally retrofitted with brown vinyl leatherette seats. However, the balance of the fleet was redone in the SEPTA/Conrail era with canvas-textured padded covering in a so-called "Ketchup and Mustard" theme, with the three-person seats upholstered in mustard yellow and the two-person seats done in a dark ketchup red.
  Despite both Reading and PRR cars being paid for in part by the PSIC, each railroad was allowed to put their own stamp on the design.  These differences included the PRR units being fitted with only one overhead luggage rack, a bar pilot, a metal-framed engineer's window and position-light cab signals, with the Reading cars being fitted with a cowcatcher, twin overhead luggage racks, and color light (though PRR-compatible) cab signals; the latter were removed after the RDG discontinued its 1928 cab signal installation on the Bethlehem Branch between Jenkintown and Lansdale in 1967,  and 9001–9017 would have to be re-equipped with cab signal equipment in 1983–84 in preparation for operation through the Center City Commuter Connection and former PRR lines. The first group of PRR cars (201–219) were intended by be used on longer distance runs to places like Harrisburg, PA and New York City and were equipped with a bathroom on the "F" end to facilitate this. The second set of PRR cars, along with all of the Reading cars, were not equipped with comfort facilities, substituting a 3-person bench seat is its place.  While all of the Silverliner cars were delivered with disc brakes, the PRR disliked this feature as it required trains to be placed over a drop pit for routine brake work, and all of their 38 cars were converted to conventional tread brakes by 1968.  The Reading cars were not converted to tread braking until rebuilding in the SEPTA era in 1989.  In addition to the disc brakes, all classes of Budd Silverliner were delivered with an early multi-function coupler design that consisted of an AAR "tightlock" knuckle coupler mounted above a separate automatic coupler for air and electrical connections. This design allowed the new MU cars to be attached (in emergencies or planned shop moves) for towing behind locomotives, conventional passenger and heavyweight MU cars, or in freight trains; the outer ends of the stepboxes were lettered with detailed instructions to train crews for doing so.  However, the newer fleet of 232 Silverliner IVs were delivered with Budd's new "pin and cup" coupler and both the Silverliner II and III fleets were modified to both couple to and MU with the IVs, as opposed to the older cars th
caption: Interior of a Budd Silverliner showing the leatherette decor applied to cars 259, 269, 9012 and 9015 in place of the standard "Ketchup and Mustard" styling.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Make": "OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP.", "Image Model": "SP510UZ", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Paint Shop Pro Photo 11.20", "Image DateTime": "2012:04:16 19:33:39", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "290", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1048", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8072", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/10", "EXIF FNumber": "5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Shutter Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "0000:00:00 00:00:00", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "0000:00:00 00:00:00", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "297/100", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "63/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1270", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "953", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "906", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}