HISTORY

This motorcar weighed 45.5 tons and was 66 feet long. Power was produced by a 175hp GE 16A4 V-8 gasoline engine connected to a type DT generator. This in turn powered two GE type 205 100 hp traction motors, mounted on each of the forward axles. There were drop level side doors near the center for passenger boarding. This motorcar had seating for 69 passengers, and included a stylish round rear end. The baggage compartment was accessed via side doors, and central doors to the passenger and engine rooms.

This motorcar was purchased in 1914 by the San Diego & Southeastern Ry. used from the Buffalo Rochester & Pittsburgh RR (where it was #1002 "Meteor"), who in turn purchased it from General Electric, order No. 3707, and was built in 1911. It was given road number 43 on the SD&S. The SD&S was absorbed by the San Diego & Arizona Ry in 1917, retaining the same number, and for which this model is lettered. In 1933, the SD&A became the San Diego & Arizona Eastern, a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific. The car was taken out of service in 1934 and was scrapped in 1939. 

These cars had a sharply curved nose, suggestive of the earlier McKeen "windsplitter" Motor Cars. The body and trucks were manufactured by Wason Manufacturing Company of Springfield, Mass., a subsidiary of the J. G. Brill Co. Control equipment was mostly of standard GE streetcar origin (type K controller, CP-27 air compressor) but an additional complication required matching the engine output and electrical generator load. The difficulty of doing so ultimately caused GE to withdraw from the motorcar business, until means for automatic transition were invented.

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The SDA43 has been chosen as "Worlds best Download" February, 2003

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