Budd Garrett experimental gas-turbine M-1 cars

[Kelly&Kelly]

Bill, in case nobody's told you lately: You have some excellent and unusual photos. Thanks for sharing. Lots of memories there...

[newkirk]

Kelly&Kelly wrote: Bill, in case nobody's told you lately: You have some excellent and unusual photos. Thanks for sharing. Lots of memories there...

Thank you, here ya go, chew on these three !!
Click to enlarge.

[Nasadowsk]

Interestingly, a data sheet on the Garrett 831 shows that it's got a shaft horsepower of about 500, running speed of 39,000 RPM (!) and an output shaft speed based on reduction of 1200 to 3600 rpm (based on application).

No weight is listed. Interestingly, while trying to find more info, I found a book from Garrett talking about a closed cycle gas turbine fueled by the decay heat of plutonium spheres, for space power generation....

[MACTRAXX]

BM and Everyone:
The three pictures above of the two incarnations of the GT-1 and GT-2 Turbine Car were:
1-The GT-1 car when it was new back in 1966-likely taken at or near the Budd Red Lion car plant.
2-A description on how the turbine operates. I have seen ephemera about the GT-1 car that does
show how this car operates that included this drawing as part that the NRHS National Library had
in their collection (currently in storage since March 2008).
3-GT-2 at the west end of Floral Park Station...I discovered that this very same picture was used
in the February 1971 issue of Trains Magazine in a LIRR article on Page 43 thanks to some recent
RMLI ephemera that I looked at this past week...
Good memories of this unique test car...MACTRAXX

[newkirk]

MACTRAXX:

So the GT-1 & 2 was the 1966 Budd car.

So what about the 1975 GE & Garret gas turbine train sets, what was their model designation ?

It wasn't GT-1 0r 2. I was told it was GT/E

[452 Card]

Lets back it up a bit. What is the long hose(or cable) extending into the pilot? Was it being towed by an engine using a brake pipe through hose to comply with braking differences? This all happened before my LIRR career and it gives me an impulse to compare these tests to my own crazy new equipment testing.

[DutchRailnut]

looks like regular brake pipe hose , more interesting is guy with fire extinguisher ?? trouble stop?

[nyandw]

GT-2 Test Car LIRR Press Release, July 29, 1970 - MTA Photos: Leon Hoffman
Mineola to Ronkonkoma Shakedown Run with LIRR and MTA, Budd, and Garrett engineers assembled to observe the GT-2 performance

The rest of the press release: Here's my page: http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/gastur ... necars.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[MACTRAXX]

MACTRAXX:

So the GT-1 & 2 was the 1966 Budd car.

So what about the 1975 GE & Garret gas turbine train sets, what was their model designation ?

It wasn't GT-1 0r 2. I was told it was GT/E

BM: You have this correct...GT-1 and GT-2 were the same car: 1966-67 for GT-1 and 1969-70
was the testing years for GT-2.

The 1975 vintage Garrett cars 4001-4004 and GE cars 4005-4008 were the GT-E car fleet.
MACTRAXX

[nyandw]

Yes, LIRR GTE-1 Gas Turbine cars: http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/odds_e ... %20Turbine" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


I'm not quite sure they should be referred to as GTE-1, Anyone? Thank you.

[newkirk]

Here's a view of the GT/E truck. Notice that the 3rd rail shoe would swing away in diesel territory

[MACTRAXX]

BM: This is a clever design to protect the third rail shoe outside electrified territory.
One problem: Is this truck on one of the Garrett or GE cars? MACTRAXX

[workextra]

The turbine M1s were ahead of their time. What’s sad is that 40 or so years later we can’t come up with a modern now M9 variant of these cars. Clearly in a M9 version a Diesel engine would be the power plant of choice and would be fully duel mode.
These photos of the turbines are very nice. Thanks For sharing them.

[newkirk]

MACTRAXX wrote: BM: This is a clever design to protect the third rail shoe outside electrified territory.
One problem: Is this truck on one of the Garrett or GE cars? MACTRAXX

That picture was of the Garrett cars on the November 1977 ERA fan trip.

[JamesRR]

Did those shoes automatically retract? I imagine it would be a pain to have to manually fold them in.