McKeen Motor Car Company
[1] Founded by William McKeen, the Union Pacific Railroad's Superintendent of Motive Power and Machinery, the company was essentially an offshoot of the Union Pacific and the first cars were constructed by the UP before McKeen leased shop space in the UP's Omaha Shops in Omaha, Nebraska.
The UP had asked him to develop a way of running small passenger trains more economically and McKeen produced a design that was ahead of its time.
Many McKeen cars ended up being re-engined with a variety of drive mechanisms — gasoline-mechanical, gasoline-electric, diesel-electric or even steam power.
Most, although not all, McKeen cars had the distinctive "wind-splitter" pointed aerodynamic front end and rounded tail.
A flywheel located on the left side of the lead truck spun in the direction the engine was operating, whether or not the car was in motion.
Only the front axle was powered (via a chain drive) a design decision which contributed to the car's poor adhesion characteristics.
McKeen cars were generally wood-panelled on the interior and fitted with transverse bench seats with a central aisle.
There were many reports of cars being started by being pushed or towed by locomotives or even horses, after the compressed air ran out.
Competitor GE's cars used an electric transmission and that or a hydraulic torque converter have been used on the vast majority of successful internal combustion-engined rail vehicles since.
The Victorian Railways, the government-run system of the state of Victoria in Australia, ordered two McKeen cars in 1911, these being delivered in 1912.
Since VR stations uniformly had car-level platforms, the usual dropped entranceway was instead raised into the roof.
[3] The five cars were based at Woolloongabba for most of their lives, and handled services to the Brisbane suburbs of Corinda and Sunnybank as well as between Manly and Cleveland.
[3] The Southern Utah Railroad took possession in 1916 of the most powerful McKeen motor car ever produced, with a six-wheel leading truck.
[4] Two of the three axles in that truck were powered, connected by side rods; the engine developed 300 horsepower (220 kW).
The arrangement was largely identical to the three-axle lead truck on the unique Southern Utah Railway McKeen car.
It made its last run in September 1945 and its body was sold in 1946 for service as a roadside diner, later to be used for a plumbing supply store in Carson City, Nevada.
The fully restored McKeen motorcar was put back into operation on May 9, 2010, right on schedule for its 100th anniversary of its construction.
It originally belonged to the San Diego Cuyamaca & Eastern Railroad then was later sold to the Yuma Valley Railroad before arriving in Alaska around 1921, being re-engined and round-nosed in 1924, converted to an unpowered trailer in 1935 and finally retired in the late 1940s after serving in the 714th Railway Battalion during WWII.
