THE CASS MONOGRAPHS — A CONTINUING SERIES —
The Last Operating McKeen Motorcar GUEST COLUMNISTS: FRANK ACKERMAN AND WENDELL HUFFMAN
Virginia & Truckee No. 22:
History and Operations of the Mills at Cass, WV 1902 - 2011
Planing Mill, Saw Mill & Extract Plant
Plans, Maps & Scale Drawings
Over 90 Vintage Photos
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The Story of Western Maryland Shay No. 6 1929 - 2009
From Coal Hauler to Cass Scenic Railroad Service
More than 130 Photos
Track Charts Diagrams & Maps
The Nevada State Railroad Museum replaced most of the side sheathing on Virginia & Truckee McKeen motorcar No. 22 during its restoration in 2004. More than half of the original aluminum porthole window frames survived, but none of the interior furnishings did.
ON A FEW SPECIAL DAYS EACH YEAR you can ride the world’s only restored McKeen motor car, Virginia & Truckee Railway No. 22, at the Nevada State Rail- road Museum in Carson City. Due to the car’s strikingly modern appearance, many visitors are surprised to learn that its de- sign dates back to 1905. Since becoming Union Pacific Railroad President in 1903, Edward Henry Harri- man had watched with concern as new, electrified interurban competitors cut into the passenger traffic of many Union Pacific branch lines. Harriman also had become aware of the growing use of internal com- bustion power for automobiles (commercial production started in the United States in 1901) and boats, especially the motor tor- pedo boats being tested by the U.S. Navy. These had been successful enough to give Harriman the idea that the Union Pacific ought to try internal combustion power for branch line passenger service. Harriman tasked William Riley McKeen,
Jr., UP’s Omaha-based Superintendent of Motive Power and Machinery, with devel- oping a self-propelled passenger car, pow- ered by a gasoline engine, that could reach a top speed of 60 m.p.h. and carry 60 peo- ple. Given that the automobiles of the time generally were capable of cruising at no more than 25 m.p.h., McKeen faced a for- midable challenge. He took an approach that minimized the car’s weight per horse- power without jeopardizing safety. As historian Mark Reutter said in a 1995 article for Railroad History (“The Life of
Edward Budd, Part I: Pulleys, McKeen Cars, and the Origins of the Zephyr;” Rail- road History 172; Spring 1995, pp. 5-34), McKeen came up with a steel motor car that overturned convention in four striking ways. He did away with the clerestory roof, which had long marked American passen- ger car design, in favor of a round roof; he used the roof as a load-bearing member of the car; he reinforced the whole assembly by means of “metallically connected” steel sheathing that extended around the car, under the floor, and over the roof; and he installed entrance doors at the center of the car, doing away with vestibules. (Seen from outside, the entry door resembles that of an Amtrak Superliner. The steps immediately inside, however, have more in common with those in commuter cars designed for low-level platforms.) Meanwhile the Hale & Kilbourn Manu- facturing Co., a furniture maker that sup- plied passenger seats for Pullman and oth- er carbuilders, had hired Edward G. Budd as the superintendent of their Philadelphia plant. Under Budd’s direction, Hale & Kil- bourn pioneered the use of gas welding to fabricate seat frames from pressed steel, reducing the weight of each seat by about 20 pounds. The new seat frame design was a great success, and it came just as the rail- roads began to replace wooden passenger cars with steel. Budd saw the potential for pressed-steel components to be used throughout car construction. He started with interior panels, mouldings, doors, and window sills, but made little headway until
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The History of Cass, WV 1898 - 2007
Over 100 Never Previously Published Photos
7” x 34” 1917 Panoramic Cass Photo
Worker’s House and
Floor Plans Maps
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Centennial History of Shay No. 5 at Cass
Logging Operations
Narratives
Over 100 Photos
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Greenhill Station Productions 1376 Green Hill Avenue West Chester, PA 19380 email:
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NEVADA STATE RAILROAD MUSEUM
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