This is an advertising brochure for the Budd RDC, probably dated in the early 1950's. It was given to me by George Isaacs at the (then) Minnesota Transportation Museum in about 1983. I, of course, kept it. It was badly water damaged in a household move when the moving company truck had a leaky roof.

I am inclined to keep it, but if someone has a really good purpose for it, I am listening. I scanned the whole thing and the pdf is at

http://www.a2analytics.com/buddrdcbrochure.pdf

Steve, Thank you for taking the time to scan this brochure and posting it for the masses. Having never seen this document before, I found it an interesting piece of material. Thank you again.

Tim W.

I want to say thanks as well.

As you do, I think this dates to the early 1950s; note that the delivery roster is relatively short. Check out the dates on the latest cars in the brochure, and that will probably give you an estimate for the date of the brochure.

What first caught my eye was the B&O photo on the cover; location looks to be Camden Station in Baltimore. The other B&O locations look like (maybe, not enough background to be sure) Harpers Ferry, W.Va., and the famous Relay Viaduct outside Baltimore.

Again, thanks for sharing.

Gad, someone finds it fascinating? We're kinda tired of tripping over the darned things! :)

Being deep in B&O territory and not that far away from Budd, Reading and P-RSL turf, we see these promotional brochures surface routinely. Railfans of the 1950s clamored over RDCs, in no small part because David P. Morgan of Trains was practically an apostle for the self-contained-motorcar concept, to the point where one wonders if payola was involved.

This brochure dates to late 1953, as it mentions the first RDCs, which were built in 1950, entering NYC/B&A service "three years" ago, and lists five B&O RDCs, before B&O ordered their second five and the CRI&P ordered its first pair at the end of 1953. (The first WP car was actually built first, but the NYC cars entered service first. This, of course, disregards the demonstrator of 1949-50.) It is, I believe, the third such RDC promo brochure made, after a 1949-50 sales brochure and a 1950-51 PR brochure.

What is the shunt block system which ensures positive single-car actuation of signals and crossing gates? As you cannot make the axles electrically contact the rails better perhaps this is some sort of brush / slip ring system electrically tying the 4 axles together so that when a wheel has good contact to the rail but its axle-mate doesn't, a good connection through the frame (or by wiring) to the other three axles increases the odds that at least one of the wheels on the other rail has a good connection at that moment.

The brochure mentions electro-mechanical A/C. So they didnt go with engine-driven compressors?

Steve

RDCs ended up with a notorious problem with electrical continuity between rail and wheels/axles for signal activation. When you deal with a heavy locomotive and cars, it's not a problem, but a single RDC occasionally ended up losing continuity through the signal circuits. This shunt-block system was a way to ensure continuity. (If you're ever in a position to try it on a freshly-abandoned track, see how difficult it is to link up the signal circuit with a jumper cable. I did it once, for a last-chance-of-a-lifetime night photo op to activate signals before they were removed, and I almost had to sandpaper the railhead to get enough contact.)

Indeed, RDCs earned a special rule in the rule books of some railroads using them: if a single RDC had to make an emergency stop (which entailed activating the sanders to keep the car from sliding), the car had to be immediately moved forward six feet if at all possible, to get the wheels off the sand which would keep the wheels from activating the track/signal circuits. Some sections of track, most notably seaside lines on the Pennsy-Reading Seashore Lines, required special attention during operation, as rusty rail could keep crossing signals from activating--not a good thing at speeds of up to 80 mph!

Highly uncalled for comment!

Les

I made it as both an RDC enthusiast and a fan of Morgan's writing. His "love affair" with the RDCs in the 1950s bordered on obsession, however.

The track circuit shunting problem of RDCs (and other lightweight cars) was made worse by their use of disk brakes. Tread brakes on other cars helped keep the wheels clean of the crud they pick up from the railhead--a much worse problem when all freight cars had oil lubricated plain journals. The Budd solution was a set of iron blocks that were shaped like brake shoes. Held in place by linkages, these by their own weight helped keep the wheels clean(er). Another solution used on other such cars is to have an auxiliary set of tread brakes that were lightly applied at all times that the main disk brakes were released. Same end effect, cleaner wheels that if the cars had disk brakes only.

The A/C system on the RDC was run with a electric motor to a belt drive compressor(about 10 hp 64 volt)
there was a large gennerator on each diesel motor to keep up with electrical needs
(a/c, roof fans for radiator,lights,air compressor,ect.)
the only thing that run directly from the diesels was the generators and the drive wheels

tim c

Upon reviewing this RDC Brochure, it occurs to me that if one were designing a modern day self-propelled diesel rail car, it would most likely end up a great deal like these RDC's from 60+ years ago.

Back in the late 60's I traveled many times in READING COMPANY RDC's. Philadelphia, Pottsville, and Bethlehem. They still seemed "new" to me back then. I liked the sound and the ride, they felt very nimble and efficient to me.

Thanks for posting this!

Would anyone out there know if someone still makes Budd Shunt Blocks, or maybe has an inventory of them? I need (8) for the re-conditioning of the #9167.
Thanks,

Thank you Mr. Harrod for taking the time to scan this brochure into a digital format. I enjoyed reading through the material particularly because we have recently brought our own RDC car, B&M 6929, onto the property for rebuilding and eventual return to service. Would this document be considered in the public domain? If possible, we’d like to be able to use it or portions of it on our website to show our visitors an important part of the history of the Budd RDC car, but I don’t wish to use it if it is under copyright or otherwise protected.

We’re getting ready to pull one wheelset out from under the car for repair as it has a badly cracked brake disk. Does anyone have a line on a shop that can repair RDC wheelsets? I’ve contacted ORX and had a great conversation with them; they can do the work and it will no doubt be of good quality. However I’d like to see if there was someone a little closer to our railroad in NC who could do the work; are there other options?

Also, we’re pulling everything off the underside of the car to turn it into a non-self-propelled coach. We have procured a modern genset and condensing unit that we intend to use and we’ll be replacing all the electrical components on the car. As a result, we have the 6-110 diesel engine, DC generator, condensing unit (with motor), and air pump as surplus. We’d like to see the parts go to a museum that could put them to use (asking scrap value if a non-profit); otherwise we may attempt to sell the equipment via a broker for a short time before eventually selling for scrap. We will consider trading for wheelset work, RDC brake disks, pads, or modern freight brake valve sets (need at least 5 ABD, ABDW or ABDX). Anyone interested please send a me a PM.

Thanks,
Mike MacLean
New Hope Valley Railway
http://www.triangletrain.com

Okay, I think we just tossed two other RDC brochures like this into the surplus stack.

If I pull them out and mail them to someone, will they scan them and make them publicly available on an appropriate website? Not just here, but some other online archive?

Get back to me with a mailing address by PM.

Not a Budd Car, but along the same lines, I am bringing two unused, foldable table top cards promoting the New Haven's "Roger Williams" talgo train, to Springfield this weekend. Nice artifact from a similar time period, and another modernistic high speed commuter attempt.