The Keystone was a set of eight cars, built by the Budd Company in 1956[1] for the Pennsylvania Railroad. It consisted of seven coaches seating a total of 574 passengers, and one Head end power (HEP) generator car. The train was normally used in New York, New York, to Washington, D.C., service, making two round trips per day.[2]
The coaches were of a unique, split-level design, with the center portion of each car having a floor level two feet below that of standard coaches. This lowered the cars' center of gravity, allowing the train to safely take curves at higher speeds. The coaches were also built to a stressed-skin "Tubular" design, with the shell of the car providing all of the cars structural strength, without the normal heavy steel underframe. This resulted in cars weighing only 60% of what standard cars would weigh.[3]
The split-level design, with short stairways between levels, proved unpopular with passengers, causing bottlenecks during loading and unloading.[4]
The trainset was retired in 1968,[5] and sold to the South East Michigan Transportation Authority (SEMTA) in May 1976 for $80,000.[6]
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