The M-10000 was an early American
streamlined
Streamlines, streaklines and pathlines are field lines in a fluid flow.
They differ only when the flow changes with time, that is, when the flow is not steady.
Considering a velocity vector field in three-dimensional space in the framework of ...
passenger trainset that operated for the
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...
from 1934 until 1941. It was the first streamlined passenger train to be delivered in the United States, and the second to enter regular service after the ''
Pioneer Zephyr
The ''Pioneer Zephyr'' is a diesel-powered trainset built by the Budd Company in 1934 for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad (CB&Q), commonly known as the Burlington Route. The trainset was the second internal combustion-powered streamli ...
'' of the
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington Route, the Burlington, or as the Q, it operated extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illin ...
.
Development
![UP M-10000a](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/UP_M-10000a.jpg)
The M-10000 car design built upon the efforts of
William Bushnell Stout
William Bushnell Stout (March 16, 1880 – March 20, 1956) was a pioneering American inventor, engineer, developer and designer whose works in the automotive and aviation fields were groundbreaking. Known by the nickname "Bill", Stout designed an ...
, an early designer of all-metal airplanes, who adapted fuselage design ideas to the ''Railplane'' (not to be confused with the ''
Bennie Railplane
The Bennie Railplane was a form of rail transport invented by George Bennie (1891–1957), which moved along an overhead rail by way of propellers.
Prototype
Bennie, born at Auldhouse, near Glasgow, Scotland began work on the developmen ...
''), a lightweight self-propelled railcar built by
Pullman-Standard
The Pullman Company, founded by George Pullman, was a manufacturer of railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the first half of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. Through rapid late-19th century ...
in 1932. The tapered car cross-section, lightweight tubular aluminum
space frame
In architecture and structural engineering, a space frame or space structure ( 3D truss) is a rigid, lightweight, truss-like structure constructed from interlocking struts in a geometric pattern. Space frames can be used to span large areas with ...
construction, and
Duralumin
Duralumin (also called duraluminum, duraluminium, duralum, dural(l)ium, or dural) is a trade name for one of the earliest types of age-hardenable aluminium alloys. The term is a combination of '' Dürener'' and ''aluminium''.
Its use as a tra ...
skin of the ''Railplane'' were carried over into the M-10000 design. The performance of the ''Railplane'' in testing drew the attention of Union Pacific, who sought the services of Pullman-Standard in building a small, lightweight streamlined trainset for mainline service. Union Pacific ordered M-10000 from Pullman in May 1933 at a cost of $230,997, following an analysis of passenger traffic that concluded new, more cost effective equipment than heavyweight passenger cars and steam locomotives was required for maintaining profitability, especially on low-traffic routes.
[Wegman, p. 44-45] The streamlined body was developed from a series of
wind tunnel
Wind tunnels are large tubes with air blowing through them which are used to replicate the interaction between air and an object flying through the air or moving along the ground. Researchers use wind tunnels to learn more about how an aircraft ...
tests that were carried out at the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
.
The
Electro-Motive Corporation (EMC) developed the internal combustion-electric propulsion system powered by a 600 hp spark-ignition engine. As was their practice as a system engineering firm at the time, they contracted manufacture of the components of their systems to primary equipment manufacturers.
General Motors
The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...
' Cleveland subsidiary, the
Winton Engine Corporation, provided the prime mover. The air brake compressor, main generator, traction motors and control equipment were manufactured by the
General Electric
General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...
Company. Skepticism that development efforts for
diesel engines
The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-calle ...
underway in the early 1930s would provide timely release of an engine adequate for high speed rail service led to use of a spark-ignition distillate engine.
Trucks
A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction ...
were strongly influenced by German passenger bogie design, as investigated by Union Pacific chief engineer A.H. Fetters.
Design
![UP M-10000b](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/UP_M-10000b.jpg)
The M-10000 was a three-car trainset, with a combined power/baggage/
railway post office
In Canada and the United States, a railway post office, commonly abbreviated as RPO, was a railroad car that was normally operated in passenger service as a means to sort mail en route, in order to speed delivery. The RPO was staffed by highly tr ...
car and two trailing passenger coaches.
[Wegman, p.48-49] The power car measured long, followed by coaches measuring and .
Including the space between cars, the trainset had a total length of , with a width of and a height of at the cab; the coaches were shorter.
The trainset was articulated using shared
Jacobs bogies to reduce weight, making the train operate as one integrated unit rather than as a separable locomotive and cars.
The integrated-body-and-frame construction using aluminum reduced the required structural weight to a fraction of that for conventional body-on-frame railcars, and the trainset's total weight of was about the same as a single passenger coach of the time.
The power car featured an elevated "turret cab" behind a nose featuring a large vertically-divided air intake grille formed by parabolic arches. On the roof of the cab were a headlamp and a vertical marker light. The train was powered by a single spark-ignited distillate-burning engine built by the General Motors subsidiary
Winton Engine Corporation driving a generator that powered two
traction motor
A traction motor is an electric motor used for propulsion of a vehicle, such as locomotives, electric vehicle, electric or hydrogen vehicles, elevators or electric multiple unit.
Traction motors are used in electrically powered rail vehicles (ele ...
s on the leading
truck
A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction ...
of the power car.
The two passenger coaches each had a capacity of 60 people; the last coach also included a small galley at the rear end to prepare meals that were served at passengers' seats.
Original livery consisted of Armour Yellow sides with a Leaf Brown nose, roof, rear, and lower panels, with red striping separating the two main colors. The nose was subsequently painted Armour Yellow consistent with other early Union Pacific streamliners.
Service history
![Union Pacific City of Salina](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Union_Pacific_City_of_Salina.JPG)
The trainset was delivered on February 12, 1934, and was sent on a publicity tour across the US, during which about a million people toured it and its stops became local media sensations.
During its exhibition tour across the US as ''The Streamliner'', where it hit a top speed of 110 mph (177 km/h) during its journey, it visited Washington DC for inspection by
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...
.
The popular train was put on display at the 1934 World's Fair ("
A Century of Progress
A Century of Progress International Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair, was a world's fair held in the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States, from 1933 to 1934. The fair, registered under the Bureau International des Expositi ...
") in Chicago from May 26 to October 31, 1934. It was somewhat overshadowed by the other lightweight streamliner, the diesel-powered ''Burlington Zephyr'', which entered the fair after a record-setting "Dawn to Dusk Dash" speed run from Denver to Chicago, in time to arrive at the "Wings of a Century" transportation pageant. During its testing, demonstration, and display periods, the M-10000 trainset included the sleeper car ''Overland Trail,'' which was removed from the consist prior to revenue service and added to Union Pacific's next streamliner,
M-10001
The Union Pacific Railroad's M-10001 was a diesel-electric streamlined train built in 1934 by Pullman-Standard with a power system developed by General Motors Electro-Motive Corporation using a Winton 201A Diesel engine and General Electric ge ...
.
M-10000 was placed in revenue service between
Kansas City
The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...
, Missouri and
Salina, Kansas as ''The Streamliner'' on January 31, 1935. It was subsequently named ''City of Salina'' as Union Pacific adopted the ''"City of..."'' convention for its new streamliners, but was also nicknamed the "Tin Worm" or "Little Zip".
It operated until December 1941, by which time its engine, after powering the train for approximately 995,000 miles, required replacement that was deemed prohibitively expensive.
The trainset was scrapped the following year, with its aluminum recycled for use in the wartime aircraft industry.
Legacy
Union Pacific commissioned five diesel-powered streamliners during 1934–1936, evolved from the M-10000 design. The color scheme originated with M-10000 was used for UP's later streamliners, and changed incrementally to the Armour Yellow and Harbor Mist Gray livery that became UP's standard. The "Streamliner" name for M-10000 became the general term for locomotives and passenger trains styled with clean lines and an aerodynamic look. The high-mounted, behind-the-nose cab design originated with M-10000 was later adopted for EMC's
E-Series and
F-Series locomotives, although without the front-mounted air intake. Integrated-body-and-frame, or
carbody, designs became standard for rail equipment where weight was a concern, such as early mainline diesel locomotives, passenger cars, urban mass transit rail, and high speed passenger rail.
In popular culture
In the 1937 children's book "Choo Choo: The Story Of An Engine Who Ran Away" by
Virginia Lee Burton, an M-10000 is cast as the streamliner train that helps Choo Choo's crew pursue the title engine after she runs away. Once Choo Choo is found on an old unused track, her engineer, Jim, uses a chain to help the streamliner tow Choo Choo back to the big city as the M-10000 lacks couplers.
References
Footnotes
Bibliography
*
External links
"The Iron Horse Goes Modern"''Popular Mechanics'', September 1933 -- detailed article on Union Pacific engineering research that lead to the M-10000
"Tuning Up A Streamliner" ''Popular Mechanics'', November 1935pp. 718-719 improvements resulting in the M-10001
* , contemporary description of the train
{{Pullman rolling stock
North American streamliner trains
Articulated passenger trains
Union Pacific Railroad locomotives
Scrapped locomotives