Budd's RDC on the C&O

In September 1949, the Budd Company introduced its Rail Diesel Car (RDC). Originally offered in three configurations (full coach RDC-1; coach-baggage RDC-2; and coach-baggage-mail RDC-3the first mail-express RDC-4's were built in 1953), the RDC was promoted by its builder as a multi-purpose vehicle. More than a one-for-one postwar replacement for aging and uncomfortable gas-electric "doodlebugs," it also offered railroads the potential to convert marginal branchline and secondary locomotive-hauled trains to a more cost-effective operation. The cars' trademark Budd stainless steel architecture bespoke modernity, and while most RDC's did, in fact, end up relegated to branchline and secondary service, operators as disparate as Western Pacific and Baltimore & Ohio saw the cars' potential as mainline speedsters.

The Chesapeake & Ohio, through Ken Browne and his Office of Research Consultant in Cleveland, had been working on a similar concept of its own (see sidebar on page 10). As Budd's RDC- demonstrator No. 2960 toured the U.S. and Canada in the early 1950s and the industry embraced Budd's new product line, the C&O shelved design work on its experimental "Self-powered Car for Branch and Secondary Mainline Service" after considering, in the spring of 1952, the purchase of RDC-I's and RDC-4's for service on the Chesapeake District. In a May 14, 1952, letter to Divisional managers, C&O Superintendent J. E Schaffer outlined the weight and clearance restrictions for RDC operation and gave some insight into the otherwise unspecified plans for RDC use on this portion of the C&O. The cars under consideration would have been prohibited from the Seng Creek Tunnel (Seng Creek Subdivision), the Kanawha Bridge & Terminal Subdivision, from tracks 1 and 2 of the Lexington,Ky., station, and the Hot Springs, Va., cinder track. Speed restrictions also would have been imposed on the Afton, Va., passing track and over the Broadway Street Bridge on the Lexington Belt Line. Beyond these restrictions, Schaffer observed that, "RDC-1 and RDC-4 cars may be operated, as far as clearance and weight are concerned, on the main tracks and passing tracks of the Chesapeake District ...."

Budd's RDC-1 demonstrator No. 2960 reportedly was tested on at least one occasion between Richmond and Newport News, but by April 1953-when the C&O ceased further work on its own experimental self-powered car project-the railways interest in the RDC had waned. More than four years would pass before that interest was revived.

Old Becomes New

In September 1957 the C&O received three Budd RDC's in trade from the Chicago & North Western Railway and renumbered them 9060-9062. In return, the C&O sent surplus lightweight coaches 1664-1666 to the C&NW (where they operated until being sold to Southern Pacific in May 1961).

The former C&NW RDC's-the only examples on that railways roster until one was acquired for official use in the 1970swere among the earliest RDC's built, holding third, fourth (RDC-1), and ninth (RDC-2) spots in Budd's production serial numbers.

The cars were refurbished at the C&O's Huntington, W Wa., shops. Modifications included the application of diaphragms to both ends of RDC-1 No. 9061, and to the designated rear ends of the other two cars. Since the top of the diaphragms blocked the card headlights, new "frog-eye" light housings were fabricated and mounted above the diaphragms on the affected car ends. The front ends of RDC-2 No. 9060 and RDC- 1 No. 9062-the end-units of the three-car set-retained their as-built recessed headlight arrangement.

With their relatively quiet powerplants, RDC's had a habit of "sneaking up" on grade crossings. Despite the inherent strength of the Budd's stainless steel construction, the exposed operators' position and modest pilot arrangement meant that RDC's and their occupants would be particularly vulnerable in a grade crossing collision (as compared to a locomotive-hauled train). Two methods of enhancing the visibility of RDC's as they approached crossings were embraced by the C&O, in common with a number of other RDC operators. A tapered pattern of four-inch reflective yellow Scotchlite stripes was applied to the designated front end of RDC-1 No. 9062 and RDC-2 No. 9060. By 1960, when the three ex-C&NW cars were no longer always operated as a dedicated trainset, "middle" car No. 9061 also had yellow stripes applied to its front end. On the C&O, the front of the RDC-1's was the "five-window" end-the roof "hump" was offset, with six windows on one side of the wide central pier and five on the other. On the RDC-2, the baggage compartment marked the front. The C&O applied "F" stencils to the RDC-ls, but their location on No. 9062 curiously was at odds with the operational (and duly striped) front end of the car.

Another seeming inconsistency came in the form of equipment trust plates. For a time, the ex-C&NW RDC's bore C&O trust plates declaring the cars' owner to be-- remarkably-Pullman-Standard, Budd's carbuilding nemesis. This appears to have been an accounting exercise, with the RDC's bearing the trust plates formerly affixed to the trio of traded P-S coaches.