by Richard Glueck
Frank: "Ping pong" was a term applied specifically to the unpowered steam coaches hauled by locomotives. The cars would bounce up and down against each other, in response to track conditions. They would make a sound characterized as "ping-pong".
MU MP54's were similar in appearance, but were not referred to as "pings". Now, how fast could they travel? I can't really give you a specific. but they proably could top out at around 60mph. In service, they rarely cruised above 50 mph. Another measure of speed includes the mass of the cars. Remember the photographs of the 1950 wrecks at Richmond Hill and Rockville Center? The speed was not especially fast, but the mass, speed, and operating traction motors drove cars right through others that were stationary.
Being made of steel rather than fiberglass, aluminum, and a stainless shell, once they got moving, they were formidible forces. And consider this; they lasted for almost 3/4 of a century in grueling, daily service.
MU MP54's were similar in appearance, but were not referred to as "pings". Now, how fast could they travel? I can't really give you a specific. but they proably could top out at around 60mph. In service, they rarely cruised above 50 mph. Another measure of speed includes the mass of the cars. Remember the photographs of the 1950 wrecks at Richmond Hill and Rockville Center? The speed was not especially fast, but the mass, speed, and operating traction motors drove cars right through others that were stationary.
Being made of steel rather than fiberglass, aluminum, and a stainless shell, once they got moving, they were formidible forces. And consider this; they lasted for almost 3/4 of a century in grueling, daily service.
"We no take-a gasoline. We no take-a airplane. We take-a steamship! And that friends, is how we fly to America! - Chico Marx