Budd Silverliner

The Budd Silverliner was an electric multiple unit commuter railcar that the Budd Company of Philadelphia built from 1963, with 59 cars delivered. Fifty-five went to the Pennsylvania and Reading Railroads for Philadelphia area commuter service, paid for with public money through the Passenger Service Improvement Corporation, and four were bought by the United States Department of Transportation for high-speed rail experiments in 1965. The design grew out of six Pioneer III prototypes built in 1958, and the cars took their name from unpainted stainless steel bodies that contrasted with the painted steel of the older multiple unit fleets. They brought air conditioning, more interior space and faster acceleration to the region, were later renamed Silverliner II when the second Silverliner generation arrived in 1967, and gave the whole SEPTA family of electric cars its name. The last ones were retired in 2012, after 49 years in service.