page_title: Bullet (interurban)
section_title: No grade crossings
hierarchical_section_title: Bullet (interurban) / A forerunner of the high-speed trains / No grade crossings
caption_attribution_description: English: PSTC = Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Co. also known at the Red Arrow Lines A Roger Puta photograph
context_page_description: The Bullet was a high-speed electric multiple-unit passenger car produced by the J. G. Brill Company in Philadelphia for the Philadelphia and Western Railroad in 1931, and then similar, somewhat smaller single-unit, single-end versions were built for the Fonda, Johnstown and Gloversville Railroad in 1932. Few were sold because of the Great Depression and the public transport decline in the 1930s. However, some of the P&W cars ran for almost 60 years.
context_section_description: The P&W was originally conceived to be a Class I railroad which would compete for east-west traffic with the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad.  Already in 1907, the P&W had laid trackage with a quality never seen before by an interurban – free from grade crossings with both railroads and roads, and with a color-light block signal system, like most Class I railroads of the day. Nearly the entire line was double track to improve safety and capacity (the deadliest interurban wrecks were caused by head-on collisions). To further utilize the Bullets' potential, more improvements were made to track and signal systems to permit extremely high speeds on the Norristown line.
  In a test run  one of the cars covered the 13.5-mile (21.7 km) P&W line from Norristown to the 69th Street Terminal in Upper Darby in 11 minutes while in regular passenger service they cut express schedule timings by 1/3, from 24 to only 16 minutes including stops, running at 80–90 mph (130–140 km/h)
  P&W bought ten double ended, multiple-unit Bullets; Brill later built an eleventh replacement unit. In addition, five shorter 47 feet (14 m), single ended, single-unit Bullets with a slightly different front and rear design were sold to Fonda, Johnstown and Gloversville Railroad (FJ&G) in 1932. P&W used a protected over-running third rail with high-level station platforms exclusively; FJ&G's Bullets were trolleys, as they had to be compatible with both street running as well as high-speed private right-of-way.
  The decline of the interurban business as a result of the Great Depression of the 1930s and increasing use of automobiles and buses helped prevent any further manufacture and sale of the Bullet cars. The interurban cars, as were ordinary streetcars, were delayed by traffic congestion in the streets, too. The interurban (and railroad) companies must build and maintain their own right-of-ways while roads for private cars and buses are paid by the taxpayers of which the railroad and interurban companies were among the greatest. In addition, a group named National City Lines but led by General Motors bought streetcar and interurban companies, dismantled the infrastructure and resold the companies to new owners who committed themselves to buy and use buses – from General Motors.
caption: Philadelphia Suburban Transportation Co. Strafford Car on long trestle at Norristown, PA on September 28, 1969
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