J. G. Brill Company - The Unique Bullet Cars

The Unique Bullet Cars

The lines that operated interurban passenger cars recognized in the mid 1920s that they needed faster and more efficient equipment. Up to that time, both the wood and the steel interurban cars were large, sat high, and were heavy. Car manufacturers such as Cincinnati Car Co., St. Louis Car Co., and Pullman worked to design equipment for a better ride at speed, improved passenger comfort, and reduce power consumption. This included designing trucks able to handle rough track. Brill, in conjunction with Westinghouse and General Electric, worked on a new design. The result was the 1929 aluminum and steel wind tunnel developed slope roof Bullet cars, the first of which were purchased by the Philadelphia and Western Railroad, a third rail line running from 69th Street Upper Darby to Norristown in the Philadelphia region. This line still runs as SEPTA Route 100. These Bullets were successful and operated until the 1980s, but not many others were sold. Only the central New York state interurban Fonda, Johnstown, and Gloversville Railroad ordered Bullets. Five were procured in mid-Depression 1932. In 1936 the FJ&G sold its Bullets to the Bamberger Railroad in Utah, which ran them in high-speed service between Salt Lake City and Ogden until the mid-1950s. Three of the SEPTA cars are now at the Seashore Trolley Museum.