Budd Rail Diesel Car
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- For other meanings of RDC, see RDC (disambiguation).
The Budd Rail Diesel Car or RDC is a self-propelled diesel-hydraulic rail passenger car. During the period of 1949–1956, 398 RDCs were built by the Budd Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. These cars were primarily adopted for passenger service in rural areas with low traffic density or in short-haul commuter service, and were less expensive to operate in this context than a traditional locomotive-drawn train. The cars could be used singly or several coupled together in trainsets and controlled from the cab of the front unit.
The Boston and Maine Railroad owned by far the largest number of these units, but they were also very popular with the passenger heavy New Haven Railroad and Canadian railways such as the Canadian Pacific Railway (where they were known as Dayliners), the Canadian National Railway, and the former BC Rail. VIA Rail still uses RDCs for scheduled services on Vancouver Island and in Northern Ontario, and the planned Blue22 service connecting Toronto to its airport will use refurbished RDCs as well.
Since 1994 three RDCs are being used for the OnTrack commuter rail line in Syracuse, New York. The Trinity Railway Express (TRE) service between Dallas, Texas and Fort Worth are currently using RDCs for commuter passenger during off-peak hours, with connections available at various points to Amtrak and the DART system. As well, the Alaska Railroad possesses five RDCs, with four in service and one for parts cannibalization. Three were from SEPTA, two were from the former New Haven Railroad, and one was from Amtrak. [1] RDCs are typically coupled and used for the railroad's Hurricane Turn service and the annual Fair Train. The Hurricane Turn is the last remaining flag stop service in the U.S. and is the only transportation to many summer (and year-round) cabins on a stretch of track between Talkeetna and Hurricane Gulch. (The Parks Highway, the nearest road, is several miles to the west on the other side of a mountain ridge.) The annual Fair Train takes fairgoers from Anchorage to the Palmer stop next to the fairgrounds.
The basic car was adapted from a standard 85 ft (26 m) coach. They were powered by two Detroit Diesel (then a division of General Motors) diesel bus engines, each of which drives an axle through a hydraulic torque converter, a technology adapted from military tanks of World War II. RDC trains were an early example of self-contained diesel multiple units, an arrangement now in common use by railways all over the world.
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[edit] Variants
Budd manufactured five basic variants of the RDC:
- The RDC-1 — an 85 ft (26 m) all-passenger coach seating 88 passengers.
- The RDC-2 — an 85 ft (26 m) Railway Post Office and passenger coach configuration seating 71 passengers.
- The RDC-3 — an 85 ft (26 m) variant with a Railway Post Office, a baggage compartment and 44 passenger seats.
- The RDC-4 — a 65 ft (20 m) variant with only the Railway Post Office and baggage area.
- The RDC-5 (also known as the RDC-9) — an 85 ft (26 m) passenger coach seating 82, with no independent control cab.
The RDC-1 was powered by two 6-cylinder Detroit Diesel engines, each of 275 hp (205 kW).
Circa 1956, the New Haven Railroad ordered a custom-built, six-car RDC trainset named the "Roger Williams". It consisted of 2-single-ended cab units, and four intermediate cars to make a complete train. The units even were fitted with third-rail shoes, electric traction motors, and associated gear for operation into Grand Central Terminal, though this was short lived. In the New Haven's later years, the set was broken up, and used with regular New Haven RDCs, and by Amtrak into the 1980s. The two cab units and one intermediate car are fully restored and operational, and are on display at the Danbury Railway Museum in Connecticut.
In 1978, Budd offered a new RDC model, called the SPV-2000 (self-propelled vehicle), but only 24 of them were sold, as they proved unreliable and did not gain marketplace acceptance. The few remaining in service have long been converted to unpowered, locomotive-drawn coaches.
Five cars were built under licence in Australia by Commonwealth Engineering for the New South Wales Government Railways. They were smaller than the standard RDC in all dimensions. One car was built with a buffet/snack bar accommodation in one end. The five-car set operated the South Coast Daylight Express between Sydney and Nowra.
[edit] Unusual modifications
In what was billed as an experiment toward high speed rail, the New York Central (NYC) fitted a pair of jet engines atop one of their RDCs and added a shovelnose front to its cab. This RDC, which NYC had numbered M497, set the United States speed record in 1966 when it travelled at just short of 184 mph (296 km/h) between Butler, Indiana, and Stryker, Ohio. Most sources agree, however, that this was purely a publicity stunt on the part of the NYC.
Three RDC-1s were exported to Australia to operate with the Commonwealth Railways. These cars ran between Port Pirie and various locations, and later by Australian National from Adelaide to Whyalla, Port Augusta and Broken Hill.
The buffet car built by Commonwealth Engineering for the New South Wales Government Railways was the only non-powered version of these carriages.
[edit] References
- Scheurle, Bob, New York Central RDC3 #M497. Retrieved March 14, 2005.
- Wayner, Robert J., ed. (1972). Car Names, Numbers and Consists. New York: Wayner Publications.
