IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - March/April 2015 - 78

history

Joseph J. Cunningham and David M. Rosenthal

pioneer automated train
the story of Contract S-107

The AUTOMATeD OR SeMI-AUTOmated operation of rail transit vehicles
is commonplace on the rapid transit
systems constructed over the past 50
years. Operation is usually automated
on the short "people mover" lines at
airports; it is semi-automated on the
long-range suburban rapid transit systems such as Bay Area Rapid Transit in the San Francisco Bay area of
California and the Washington D.C.
Metro system. All depend on digital
computer-controlled propulsion, speed
monitoring, braking, stop positioning,
door operation, and scheduling. There
was, however, a short rapid transit line
that did all those functions without
computers more than a half century
ago, and it did so under one of the most
famous thoroughfares in the world.
Known officially as Contract S-107
under the signal contract issued by
the New York City Transit Authority
(NYCTA), to the public and media it
was simply "the automatic shuttle" or
"the automated train." Like its contemporary Project Mercury of the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration,
which put the first U.S. astronauts into
earth orbit, it was a product of the technical development of the time and was
dependent on mechanical relays without computers.

The Early Years
That automation effort was rooted in
a long history of evolution in railroad

This "History" column, authored by Joseph J. Cunningham and David M.
Rosenthal, chronicles the development and extensive testing of the world's first
automated train during the early 1960s. During its life, this subway train operated over a roughly 1/2 mi (0.8 km) east-west route between Times Square and
Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan, New York City. An advanced technological
achievement for its time, the automated train was all the more amazing because it
was developed and operated before the advent of modern electronic computers,
microprocessors, and all that the "digital revolution" has given to today's scientists
and engineers.
This history article marks Joseph Cunningham's sixth contribution to these pages.
Cunningham's interest in electric power systems dates to his youth when his high
school science project, "The Theory and Operation of Alternating Current," was
awarded a first-place gold medal. This success led to a scholarship and a degree in
physics from St. Francis College of Brooklyn Heights, New York. He has researched
and authored numerous booklets, articles, and books on topics such as industrial
electrification, electric utility power systems, and electric rail transportation. His latest book, New York Power, was published in 2013 by the IEEE History Center Press. In
1976, he coauthored a definitive three-volume History of the New York City Subway
System. He has also lectured and taught widely on the history of electrotechnology
and has consulted on numerous history projects and television productions.
David Rosenthal holds a degree in systems engineering from the Polytechnic
Institute of Brooklyn, New York. He is presently a senior signals engineer working
for AECOM Technologies on signal and train control projects for the Metropolitan
Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA). Over the past 42 years, he has worked as
an engineer for General Railway Signal Company, Union Switch and Signal Company, MARTA, and Parsons Brinckerhoff/Tudor. He has done design work, specification writing, testing, commissioning and many other activities for properties
such as the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority; Baltimore, Maryland;
New York City Transit Authority; Seoul, Korea; and MARTA. He also has studied
the design history of rapid transit railway signaling.
We welcome Joseph Cunningham and David Rosenthal as our guest history
coauthors for this issue of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine.
-Carl Sulzberger
Associate Editor, History

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPE.2014.2380574
Date of publication: 24 February 2015

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