New Haven Comet (1935): Goodyear-Zeppelin Streamliner, Specs & Schedule
Last revised: August 27, 2026
By: Adam Burns
The New Haven did not invent the American streamliner. Union Pacific’s aluminum M-10000 and Burlington’s stainless Pioneer Zephyr were already in the papers when the New York, New Haven & Hartford ordered its own three-car set. What the New Haven built was different in the way that mattered on a short, crowded Shore Line: a double-ended diesel train that did not need a wye or a turntable at South Station. Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation of Akron—airship people, not carbuilders—delivered one 207-foot aluminum tube in 1935. The railroad named it the Comet. The advertised trick was 44 miles in 44 minutes between Boston and Providence.
It was the only railroad train Goodyear-Zeppelin ever sold. Public Works Administration money paid the $250,000 price. Revenue service began June 5, 1935. The New Haven itself went into Section 77 bankruptcy that October. The little train outlasted the airship partnership, the war rush that overcrowded its 160 seats, and a spell on Boston suburban locals. Nothing of it was saved. The New Haven scrapped the set in 1951.
New Haven Comet in a 1970s postcard reproduction of a period photograph. The original card did not give location or date. American-Rails.com collection.
On this page: At a glance · Why Akron built a train · Design · Consist · Specifications · Tests and the 44-in-44 · War, locals, scrap
At a Glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Railroad | New York, New Haven & Hartford |
| Name | Comet |
| Builder | Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation, Akron, Ohio (only railroad trainset the firm sold) |
| Partners in the carbody | Aluminum Company of America (alloy sheet and castings); Westinghouse (diesels and electrical equipment) |
| Cost / funding | $250,000, advanced by the Railroad Division of the Public Works Administration (part of a larger 1934 PWA equipment loan to the New Haven) |
| Bid / construction | Bid accepted early 1934; completed spring 1935 |
| Public test | April 29, 1935, New Haven–Boston: 156.8 miles in 143 minutes, peak 110.5 mph near Kingston, R.I. |
| Revenue service | June 5, 1935 |
| Carded assignment | Boston (South Station)–Providence, advertised 44 miles in 44 minutes; five weekday round trips at the start |
| Withdrawn / scrapped | 1951. Nothing preserved |
Why an airship company built a train
Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation was a 1924 joint venture: Goodyear two-thirds, Luftschiffbau Zeppelin one-third. Karl Arnstein, Zeppelin’s chief engineer, became vice-president of engineering in Akron. The firm’s reputation rested on rigid airships for the U.S. Navy—Akron and Macon—and on aluminum, wind tunnels, and riveted light structure. USS Akron went into the Atlantic on April 4, 1933. Rigid-airship work stalled. Goodyear-Zeppelin still had the Airdock, the alloy shop, and the Daniel Guggenheim Airship Institute next door. A lightweight passenger train was a way to keep those skills employed.
The New Haven, hemorrhaging passengers to buses and the automobile, wanted something as photogenic as the Zephyr that would actually fit South Station. A double-ended set could shuttle Boston–Providence all day without turning. The PWA’s Railroad Division put up $250,000. Models went through wind tunnels at Columbia and at the Guggenheim institute in Akron. Alcoa supplied the aluminum. Westinghouse supplied the diesels. The train left Ohio in April 1935. USS Macon had crashed off California that February, while the cars were still in the shop. Goodyear-Zeppelin did not vanish in 1941; the airship joint venture was reorganized as Goodyear Aircraft Corporation on December 5, 1939 to build airplane parts. The Comet remained its only railroad product.
Harris & Ewing Inc. publicity photograph of the Comet, circa 1935. Library of Congress / American-Rails.com collection.
Tube, shovel noses, two cabs
The Comet is a three-car articulated train on four trucks (UIC B′2′2′B′). Adjacent cars share Jacobs bogies. You cannot cut a coach in or out for a Saturday football crowd. The trade is weight, a low floor, and a ride that behaves as one vehicle. Power cars at both ends have shovel noses and cabs. The engineer worked the leading end; there was no balloon track required at Providence or at South Station.
The carbody is aluminum alloy, built more like an airship gondola than a truss-sill heavyweight. Period descriptions stress a tubular structure, flush windows and plug doors, a curved roof and belly, and running gear that put the underside about 10 inches above the rail. Floor height was about 2 feet 8¼ inches. Center of gravity sat roughly 20 inches lower than a conventional coach. Width was 9 feet 10 inches; body height about 10 feet 11 inches, with the engine rooms four inches taller (11 feet 3 inches). Overall length between ends: 207 feet.
The paint was not a simple “blue, silver, and white.” The skin was machined aluminum in a whorled pattern, with bright blue enamel at window height, dark blue at the trucks, a gray roof, and a clear varnish so the metal would not tarnish. Interior: tans, brown, rust mohair walk-over seats, indirect lighting, mechanical air-conditioning, steam heat. All coach. No parlor, no diner, no RPO. This was a 44-minute dayliner.
Each power car carried a Westinghouse six-cylinder, four-cycle, solid-injection diesel—Beardmore-derived Model 160, cylinders 9 by 12 inches, 400 bhp at 900 rpm. Each engine drove a main generator and an auxiliary. Traction motors geared the driving axles. Combined rating: 800 horsepower. Designed top speed in railroad publicity was 95–100 mph; the April 29 test hit 110.5 mph.
Consist (the whole train)
New Haven numbered the three cars 9200–9202. They stayed coupled for life.
| Number | Length | Role | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9200 | 74 ft 2 in | Power / cab car (one shovel nose) | 48 coach |
| 9201 | 58 ft 8 in | Trailer coach (smoking and non-smoking sections) | 64 (28 smoking + 36 non-smoking) |
| 9202 | 74 ft 2 in | Power / cab car (the other shovel nose) | 48 coach |
Revenue seats: 160. Plug doors, three per side. That capacity was the train’s commercial limit. Extra cars were not an option without rebuilding the articulation.
Specifications
| Specification | Value |
|---|---|
| Builder | Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation, Akron, Ohio |
| Year | 1935 |
| Type | Three-car articulated diesel-electric streamliner, double-ended |
| Carbody | Aluminum alloy (Alcoa) |
| Train length | 207 ft 0 in |
| Power-car length | 74 ft 2 in each |
| Trailer length | 58 ft 8 in |
| Width | 9 ft 10 in |
| Height | ~10 ft 11 in body; 11 ft 3 in over engine rooms |
| Weight | 126 short tons (252,000 lb)—lighter than a heavyweight train of similar capacity; heavier than Zephyr 9900 (~104 tons) |
| Trucks / wheel arrangement | Four trucks; UIC B′2′2′B′ |
| Wheel diameter | 36 in powered; 30 in unpowered |
| Prime movers | Two Westinghouse / Beardmore inline-6 Model 160 diesels, 400 hp each at 900 rpm (800 hp combined) |
| Transmission | Diesel-electric; traction motors on driving axles |
| Maximum speed (carded / test) | 95 mph service publicity / 110.5 mph April 29, 1935 |
| Seats | 160, all coach |
| Heat / cooling | Steam generators; mechanical air-conditioning |
| Doors | Plug type, three per side |
The Comet in service, circa 1940s. Double-ended, three cars, still the only Goodyear-Zeppelin trainset. American-Rails.com collection.
April 29, 1935, then 44 miles in 44 minutes
On April 29, 1935, with president Howard S. Palmer and about 125 guests aboard and engineer Thomas E. Lyons at the throttle, the Comet ran New Haven to Boston: 156.8 miles in 143 minutes, average 65.8 mph, a timed mile at 110.5 mph near Kingston, Rhode Island. That was 55 minutes faster than the steam Yankee Clipper on the same railroad. The Providence–Boston piece, 44 miles, was made in 32.35 minutes—nine minutes inside the schedule the railroad intended to card.
May was a tour. New Haven ran the train around Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and into New York so people could walk through it; contemporary accounts put visitors in the hundreds of thousands. Regular service started June 5, 1935: Boston South Station and Providence, five weekday round trips, later with Back Bay and Pawtucket/Central Falls as intermediates, sold as “44 miles in 44 minutes.” Distance in timetables is 43.8–44 miles depending on the stops counted. Average speed on the card was a little over 60 mph including station work; south of Sharon the train was timed near 95 mph.
The New Haven promoted it regionally. Burlington and Union Pacific had already taken the national magazines. This was a New England shuttle, and the railroad was about to file for bankruptcy. Section 77 petition: October 23, 1935. The Comet was already earning its keep. Under court protection the company still dieselized switchers, bought lightweight coaches, and, later, streamlined steam and electrics. The three-car Akron set stayed unique. No second Comet was ordered. Articulation made a fleet expansion expensive, and the treasury was in the courtroom.
1939 timetable
The image below is the live-page 1939 public timetable for the Boston–Providence Comet service. Read the minutes on the card, not a later summary.
New Haven public timetable, 1939, for Comet service. American-Rails.com collection.
War traffic, suburban locals, 1951 scrap
One hundred sixty seats filled on a popular 44-minute schedule were a victory in 1935 and a bottleneck by 1943. Wartime Boston–Providence traffic needed more cars than an articulated three-car set could grow. The New Haven moved the Comet onto local and suburban runs around Boston, where a fixed 160-seat tube was less useful and less glamorous. Weekend excursions had already used it off the shuttle. After 1943 it was a leftover high-speed local, not New England’s showpiece.
The New Haven left bankruptcy in 1947 with a modernized passenger fleet of more conventional lightweight cars. The Comet was sixteen years old, still unique, still unable to take a fourth car. In September 1951 the railroad pulled it. Preservation of 1930s rail cars was not yet a habit amd the set was scrapped.
Related Reading on American-Rails.com
- New Haven Railroad
- Pioneer Zephyr 9900
- Union Pacific M-10000
- Flying Yankee
- The Rebel
- Green Diamond
- Streamliners
Sources
- New York Times, April 30, 1935 (“Streamliner Hits 110-Mile Top Speed”—April 29 test, 110.5 mph, 32.35 minutes Providence–Boston, $250,000 PWA, Goodyear-Zeppelin / Alcoa / Westinghouse)
- Railway Age, April 27, 1935 (builder description; seating and construction)
- “The American Comet,” Railway Wonders of the World (207 ft, two 400 hp Westinghouse six-cylinder diesels, 9×12 in, 900 rpm, 160 seats, 43.8 miles in 44 minutes)
- Living New Deal, Comet Train, Boston (PWA $250,000 within a larger New Haven equipment loan; Alcoa and Westinghouse as suppliers)
- UConn Archives / New Haven Railroad Records; Shoreliner (NHRHTA), Steve Link, “Introducing the Comet” and “Constructing the Comet”
- Goodyear Aerospace / Goodyear-Zeppelin corporate history (1924 joint venture; Goodyear Aircraft, December 5, 1939)
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