This Budd's For You! 

I was working on Budd RDC 3 car train set for Amtrack. I worked in Chicago for in the mid 1970's. Brighton Park turbo facility did the maintenance each night. They where run Chicago to Dubuque Iowa each day.

A great video. We had Budd cars in Australia for awhile. They were used as the South Coast Daylight Express and travelled between Sydney and Bomaderry. Later, as they began to wear out they had their engines removed and a diesel loco hauled them. They also operated in the 1980's between Griffith and Junee NSW so that passengers could connect with the XPT express train between Sydney New South Wales and Melbourne Victoria.

I was a young kid with my grandfather in the early 70's when we saw one (a single car) heading north on the New London - Worcester line. I'd never seen such a thing. I asked him what it was. He told me it was a Budd Car and they were usually used when there were too many passengers to discontinue service but too few to run a regular train. It stuck in my head because growing up between Boston and NYC I was familiar with electric & diesel trains, subways, street cars (trams), and trolley buses. THIS was something new and different. The funny thing is that about 90% of the people I've told about this try to 'correct' me and state the line must've been electrified and I just didn't realize it. I tell them no and that I practically grew up there and there was neither a third rail nor an overhead wire. Nearly every person smiles smugly and goes into 'humor the crazy person' mode. Even though I've long since documented that Budd Cars were never a product of my imagination, I still smirk whenever I find another source of reference to pass along to 'unbelievers'.

I got to ride many different RDC’S in the 1970’s and 1980’s here in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The Reading Railroad used them for service between Philadelphia and Newark, Nj on weekdays as the Wall Streeter and Crusader. Those two trains also used one car that had a snack bar set up serving coffee and pastries in the morning and drinks and snacks on the evening return runs. They also served Reading and Pottsville and on that line would usuall run multiple cars to Reading and then separate the cars to one that would continue on to Pottsville. The current Reading and Northern still run RDC’S on various excursions out of a station near Reading. I also got to ride on the old Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore lines and later NJ TRANSIT to either: Atlantic City, Ocean City,and Wildwood and Cape May. On runs to Ocean City and Wildwood Cape May they would run usually two cars to Tuckahoe where the cars would separate and one went on to Ocean City and the other to Cape May. I am glad to hear you still have two RDC’s to run on your tourist line.

My father, Walter B Dean, and his brother, Albert Gardner Dean, were (employees of Budd) the inventors of this train as well as the Burlington Zephyr. Thank you for this video. I really enjoyed it and learned a great deal. I appreciate you conserving these vehicles.

I have always had a soft spot in my heart for all of the Budd RDC's !! And many still run to this day.

A correction, Ralph Budd was never an employee of the Budd Car Company. He was the recently appointed president of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railway when he contracted with Edward Budd (no relation) to create the Pioneer Zephyr (debuting in 1932), one of the first streamlined trains in the US.

I never saw them here in Manitoba except in the shop. They used Detroit 6-110 engines that I spent some time rebuilding at the CN during my machinist apprentiship.

Used to see 712 running around up here in Alaska all the time. They still offer flagstop service here, just with regular trains and passenger cars

The MBTA (in the Boston area) inherited a bunch of RDCs from the Boston & Maine, which they didn't want to maintain the engines on, so after a few years they partially demotored them, although they kept 1 engine on each to provide electric power, heat, and (theoretically) air conditioning. They had them pushed and pulled by FP10 diesel locomotives (actually rebuilt F units) that they horiginally ad to use instead of more modern locomotives due to some bridges being too low over the tracks (a problem that they finally fixed). I got a cab ride in one of these RDCs in 1987. The driver told me the T had wanted to get rid of them but couldn't because of the increasing ridership which kept expanding to fill the capacity of all the new trains they ordered even while keeping these in service. I think the low overhead bridge clearance problem might have already been fixed by that point. I do remember that the crash protection for the driver was extremely minimal, and that the seat and cramped legroom would have been extremely uncomfortable for somebody that had to operate one of these things all day. Too bad the successors to the Budd cars (the SPV2000s) were too unreliable to stay in service.

I remember the Budd car from many years ago. I rode them on occasion, when I was a tech for CN Telecommunications in Northern Ontario in the mid '70s. While they did have flag stops, I had an advantage in that I could get on the dispatcher's phone to arrange a stop. Also, if you were on the local train in hunting season, you might experience a flag stop to pick up hunter and moose! BTW, that Sudbury to White River run you mentioned was on the CP Rail line. They were the main competitor for CN, which I worked for.

The Budd cars were a brillant invention. I rode an RDC-1 in Ontario once a week and yes they were bouncy

The WCRA Museum in Squamish BC has two preserved RDC's

I grew up near the Baltimore and Ohio main line from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore. Their RDC's were a common sight at Grade Crossings and underneath bridges.

In the UK we call them multiple units and they saved much of our railway from being ripped up. Especially the more rural lines

Great video. It's good to listen to someone, who knows what they are talking about. I enjoy videos, about trains, probably makes me a rail-fan.

I really like this series are you going to continue the series even when the museum opens again

Great video. Thanks for an excellent job. Used to ride on these. They were called the "Dayliner".

I had a friend that worked at the Budd plant years ago, the stamping was hard work. The Reading Railroad was electrified from Philadelphia to Lansdale and they ran electrical MUs on that section. The electrified catenary system ended in Lansdale, so they use to run RDCs between Lansdale and Bethlehem.

Interesting bit of trivia: Two railways in Australia ran RDC's. Commonwealth Railways bought 3, ordering theirs direct from Budd. (In 1953, Budd created an ad for the sale , you can find them on E-Bay. 1 was preserved, 2 were converted to crew cars (trains are worked accross the outback with in-line refueling and a bunk car- 2 crews work on-off, they normally run Adelaide - Darwin) New South Wales Government Railwayd built 5 of their own (to fit their loading guage). Sadly, none of those Budd cars were saved (only RDC's built outside North America)

We had a 5 carriage Budd servicing the south coast of NSW Australia from Sydney to Nowra and yes it bounced about but was evenentualy retired. The tracks are much better now now and electrified most of the way . It was nicked named the silver slug in the end and was loco hauled due to constant breakdowns in the end.

I once came across a reference to the very early days of British Railways (formed in 1948). They purchased a stainless steel Budd railway carriage (loco-hauled) and tried it out (built to the smaller BR loading gauge). Nothing came of the trial and I have found no further reference to this purchase or what became of the car.

NP (Northern Pacific) once had Budd Car service between Duluth and Staples to connect with the North Coast Limited,.

I rode the NYC/PC RDC regularly btw Poughkeepsie and Croton Harmon on the Hudson line in the 1970s. The were retired bc of lack of replacement parts and replaced with the SPV 2000 units that were unreliable and a maintenance headache.

Its been a spring, early summer, back to watch more of these videos

Can we PLEASE do a story on Joanne? She was my conductor on two harbors 9 years ago. Saw her yesterday on my return visit. The memories came back!

The diesels are probably 6-71 (military name, truckers call the 425, they have 6 cylinders of appox. 71 cubic inches each, a total of 425 cubic inches (~6.964 Liters) and produce 425 HP), they're like the old Chrysler/Dodge Slant 6 engines, except the slant on these is even greater! Also, Budd even hired some people to design a Military Cargo Plane during WW2! They got the contract, but the plane was underpowered due to lack of available engines, by the time the engines that it was designed for (finally) became available, the plane (like so many other planes of that period) was no longer needed, and newer designs using jet or turboprop engines were already going thru wind tunnel testing....

Great video!

Great video, I rode the 2019 Christmas train and I got to ride in the cab and see the controlles of the budd, this is why I love coming to the railway every year for my birthday, sadly last year I missed coming up to duluth for my birthday in july, and I'll probably miss it this year because of covid :( anyways I love the railway since its always an amazing experience for me

I would have liked to see interiors and some of the operation controls.

In Alberta, Canada, we called these Budds "Day Liners". They were retired in the 1990s.

im riding one in maine with finger lakes rw. a RDC-1 for people wondering from CN with a sandcast holden K3L

Roadtrain!

Very nice explanation but I wish you should bring video inside Bud car please.

Neat! Anymore of these Budd trains for sale .

Can the cars pull a couple of coaches

Love your content Did the diesel motors help when attached go a traditional train or could they be disengaged?

I wish you'd take us for a ride on one -- or have I missed something?

Too bad the timbs special car in the first shot no longer exists. It burned down in California. It was the only one..

The items shown are NOT from the 1950s!

Dillon

Dillon hey

What do they look like on the inside?

Kinda like a Doodlebug