The Speed Merchant or Talgo Train was a bi-directional five-car train used by the

Boston and Maine Railroad The Boston and Maine Railroad was a United States, U.S. Class I railroad in northern New England. It was chartered in 1835, and became part of what was the Pan Am Railways network in 1983 (most of which was purchased by CSX in 2022). At the e ...

in commuter service between 1958 and 1964 on the road's Eastern and Western routes. Power for the train was from two

Fairbanks-Morse Fairbanks, Morse and Company was an American manufacturing company in the late 19th and early 20th century. Founded in 1823 as a manufacturer of weighing scale, weighing scales, it later diversified into pumps, engines, windmills, coffee grinder ...

P-12-42

diesel-electric locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the power source is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving whee ...

s, one at each end of the train, connected by

multiple-unit A multiple-unit train (or multiple unit (MU)) is a self-propelled train composed of one or more carriages joined, and where one or more of the carriages have the means of propulsion built in. By contrast, a locomotive-hauled train has all ...

control. Fairbanks-Morse referred to the locomotives as "Speed Merchants" in its promotional literature, but the Boston and Maine never used this moniker. B&M timetables simply called it the "Talgo Train" in advance announcements but, once the train entered service, no names were attached in the printed schedules. The Talgo Train was purchased by the Patrick B. McGinnis administration of the B&M, and was virtually identical to the ''

John Quincy Adams John Quincy Adams (; July 11, 1767 – February 23, 1848) was the sixth president of the United States, serving from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States secretary of state from 1817 to 1825. During his long diploma ...

'', one of three experimental passenger trains purchased by the

New Haven Railroad The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , commonly known as The Consolidated, or simply as the New Haven, was a railroad that operated principally in the New England region of the United States from 1872 to 1968. Founded by the merger of ...

(under McGinnis) in an attempt to modernize rail travel and lure people out of their cars. The cars were built by

American Car and Foundry ACF Industries, originally the American Car and Foundry Company (abbreviated as ACF), is an American manufacturer of railroad rolling stock. One of its subsidiaries was once (1925–54) a manufacturer of motor coaches and trolley coaches und ...

to a lightweight

Talgo Talgo (officially Patentes Talgo, SAU) is a Spanish manufacturer of intercity, standard, and high-speed passenger trains. Talgo is an abbreviation of ''Tren Articulado Ligero Goicoechea Oriol'' (English: ''Lightweight articulated train Goicoech ...

design. The train consisted of five articulated cars, each made up of three short segments. The center car of each section had two axles (one at each end), with the remaining cars having a single axle each, being supported by adjacent cars at the end opposite the axle. The ride was rough, as with most of the other lightweight trains of the period, and the train was not a success. Service lasted until 1964.

References

Talgo North American streamliner trains Boston and Maine Railroad Named passenger trains of the United States Articulated passenger trains {{US-train-stub Railway services introduced in 1958 Railway services discontinued in 1965 Fairbanks-Morse

See also

Further reading

References