Rupert,
While that may be the first Q use of MU, the concept was already well established in the street car and elevated railway industry. Frank Sprague, who was instrumental in the development of electric railway propulsion and is considered the father of electric traction, first applied MU control the the South Side Elevated Railway in 1897. Q's first non experimental use of MU may have been with EMD box cab demonstrators nos. 511 and 512. The 1936 Denver Zephyr was probably the first equipment that the RR owned with MU'ed power.
Bill Barber Gravois Mills, MO
Thu Jun 14, 2012 11:25 pm (PDT)
The 9400 cow/calf units were not the earliest M-U's. The following is from Railway & Locomotive Engineer of 1928 -
An interesting experiment was made on October 2 by the CB&Q with a gas-electric car train. The equipment used consisted of a dual power plant 270-horsepower car used at one end of the train, and a triple power plant, 405-horsepower demonstrator car equipped by the Mack Company, with two standard day coaches between them ˆ making a total train weight of about 230 tons.
Temporary electrical connections between the two motor cars permitted operation of the train by a single engineman in the cab of the 72 ton triple power plant car on the outward journey. On the return trio, without any change in arrangement, the train was operated from the dual power plant car at the opposite end of the train, and in the reverse direction.
During the 21 mile trip outbound stops were made at the rate of one per mile, and on the return trip the train was run express. About 60 railroad men and others interested in automotive equipment were present at the demonstration.
As an aside, Mack Pullman #569 was purchased by the Burlington in the following month equipped with a 270 h.p Mack AP/AQ power unit, rather than the 405 h.p. unit in the demonstrator. I always wondered why the Burlington bought this single unit as all the other motor cars purchased at that time were either EMC-Pullman or EMC-St Louis. Perhaps the price of the experiment was the purchase.
Rupert Gamlen
Auckland NZ
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