I rode the MBTA from Concord or South Acton to Porter Square daily from 1986-1989 - the Purple Line aka Fitchburg. (I then rode the electric Red Line to Kendall Square.) At first, trains were decrepit old RDCs pushed or pulled by either an F10 or a GP7 or 9. The RDC smoke-belching diesel motors ran to provide heat (sort of) and paltry lighting - or not, if broken that day. For air conditioning, leave the doors open at either end of the car. The conductors complained that the "air bags are shot" causing the terribly bumpy ride. Had welded rail into Boston, jointed rail outbound. MBTA rigged up some sort of cabling so the engineer could run the locomotive (when pushing) from the RDC cab. Sometimes the cars were so crowded at Porter Square that I stood outside on the vestibule and nearly froze until we dropped off enough riders to free up standing room in the car. Finally, MBTA took delivery of brand new cars (with heat and A/C!) and new engines with HEP. Of course, the HEP auxiliary diesel would occasionally shut down, and only sometimes would it be restarted if someone got around to it - or not, if broken. Many winter evenings we sat in the cold, dark cars - and since much of the trip was rural, it was really dark. (This is the same track that Henry David Thoreau mentioned in Walden - the trains passed by Walden pond.) Oh well, it beat driving 90 minutes one-way in insane Boston traffic. I did this until we moved the company to Framingham. Despite the challenges, I was grateful not to have to drive. In 1992 I moved back to St. Louis which had torn up ALL of its trolley tracks in the 1950s. Boston was smart enough to keep their rail mass transit.
David, if and when I get to be your age I hope my memory's HALF as good as yours!
Boy, did my memory slip. All the FL-9s had their shoes replaced and none could run any longer into Penn Station. One of the first things PC did after taking over NYNH&H was to rerout all Boston trains into Penn Station except the Turbotrain, which was moved later, and use only GG-1s between Penn Station and New Haven. (They ran New Haven - Washington.) The ex-Virginian EF-4s became E-33s on ex-PRR lines, little freight was moved via Greenville-BayRidge carfloat and electric to New Haven in favor of Selkirk and the Boston and Albany, the EP-5 Jets mostly handled GCT - Stamford rush hour locals with demotered old NYNH&H commuter cars, and all FL-9s went into GCT-based commuter service, mostly on Hudson and Harlem Divisions, and a few to Waterbury and Danbury, plus the Pittsfield and Chathan trains as long as they lasted. Metro North and Connecticut Dot eventuraly got most of them, with a few migrating to the LIRR and six to Amtrak for Albany, not New Haven, service. They were maintaned at Harmon, not New Haven.
Thanks David! If anyone knew the whole story of someone running prohibited diesels in GCT I knew it would be you!
The under-maintenance of the third rail, the third-rail shoes, and the high-current change-over switch meant that many FL-9s could not run on straight electric. This was before Metro North took over operations, and was a Penn Central issue. The Waldorf management complained to PC because fumes were arriving at the Waldorf Ballroom. PC's lawyers told the Waldorf that only electric power was used in GCT, but the Waldorf's lawyer found out about the FL-9 diesel use, and threatened court action. So T and P motors showed up again at White Plains North Station, and all regularly assigned FL-9s to GCT trains had the dual-sprung shoes replaced by simpler underrunning-only shoes, easier to maintain and more forgiving of sloppy third rail installation, with only a few FL-9s retaining the double-sprung shoes for use when enough EP-5s (GE "Jets) were not available for Penn Station trains. (McGinnis and Alpert had scrapped all the older electrics; the Jets and ex-Virginians were around, but the latter were relocated to PRR lines.) And a new manufacturer for the change-over switches was found with a good supply on arranged for Harmon.
When Ps or Ts took a train to North White, the power beyond was often an RS-3 and not an FL-9.
I think the problem was solved by the time Metro North took over, or it was solved during their immediate overhaul and rebuilding program.
In 1969, I rode a NYC EMU-RDC combo out of GCT, using the loop track to turn the train and keep the RDC in the back. Ran up the Harlem Division. RDC continued alone pass the North White Plaines end of 3rd rail. Regarding FL-9s, I seem to remember they would idle them in GCT because they did not trust the old batteries to restart the diesel.
Your're probably right Mod-man calling it an MTA issue. I'm not much of an expert on rail ops in NYC or it's environs. I'll correct the earlier post.
Flintlock76didn't Metro North try running FL9s with non-functional third-rail shoes into GCT on diesel power alone? And they got in a little trouble over it when discovered?
Wouldn't this be likelier an MTA move, and toward the early 1970s? Good thing they were a Government entity; you can imagine what New York would do if Penn Central had tried that...
David, maybe you'd remember this, but didn't MTA try running FL9s with non-functional third-rail shoes into GCT on diesel power alone? And they got in a little trouble over it when discovered?
I recall reading that somewhere some time ago but don't remember when or in what.
In the 70's I actually rode the RDC on the back of an MU-train (1000s and 1100's, not M1s) to Harmon snd then continiuing alone to Poughkeepsie, although I got off at Peekskill. As I recall at least one of the two underfloor diesels was idling to provide light and air-condiitoning when I boarded at GCT. And this was when FL9s on diesel power were banned from GCT because of fumes into the Waldorf, and P-motors and T's again showed up at North White Plains when there were not enough FL9s that could run straight electric successfully becauses of changeover shwitch and/or third-rail-shoe issues.
This was in the early Metro-North days when Brewster trains still used second-hand reseated long distance coaces, and third rail only went to Whihe Plains North Statiion and its yard.
M-K-T used their lone RDC between Wichita Falls and Denison in the late 1950s. It started the trip as part of a train from K.C to Wichita Falls. Like M&St.L's and C&NW's, M-K-T's lone RDC was sold to the C&O (later CN/VIA)
RI RDC's never rode behind the TWIN STAR ROCKET. They ran combined with the IMPERIAL between KC-Herrington where it split to run to Fort Worth. In 1963 the train was cut back to KC-Wichita and in Jan 1964 it was discontinued.
Jones1945Speaking of RDCs, this one is something new to me:
You have an interesting picture of it, as it still has its original New Haven number visible in the numberboard (unchanged when the number went to 97 under Penn Central) but the track-inspection windows have been installed. Pretty sure the funky yellow-and-green zebra stripes are already painted on the baggage/RPO end (yes, this was an RDC-3) The conversion project was relatively late (circa 1977) -- it apparently started as one of three cars 'done over' by the German company Krautkramer Ultrasonics that made effective ultrasonic test equipment and wanted to compete with the contemporary Sperry Rail Services, and was picked up by C&NW when that effort for some reason didn't pan out.
https://www.railpictures.net/showimage.php?id=532435&key=2498605
is what the baggage end looked like before conversion.
Here is a description of the modifications:
The carbody modifications were numerous. On the right side, the RPO door and window were retained, but the baggage door was filled in using matching flutes below the belt rail, replacing the opposite side's RPO window with stainless sheet above the belt. The second and third passenger windows were removed and and relocated to the left side in the former location of the baggage door. That displaced door frame was shifted forward to the position of the left side RPO door, which was discarded. On the passenger end, all cab windows, both end and side, were deepened to within a foot of the floor to provide the observation room. Although the letterboard duplicated the graphics of the original 1950 RDCs, the sides of the ex-NH 130 featured two sizes of C&NW logos, and the car's front end was painted with green and yellow diagonal stripes.
I believe the car survives, in somewhat dilapidated shape, at the Indiana Railroad Museum in French Lick IN.
Of course if you liked that car, you'd just love one of the other prospective KrautKramer conversions, which was ex-M&StL 33 "Hawkeye":
http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3227107
Made it all the way to the early '80s as a kind of tool car at North Station, Boston.
Speaking of RDCs, this one is something new to me:
Jones 3D Modeling Club https://www.youtube.com/Jones3DModelingClub
Budd's "Rolokron" brakes were an early antilock scheme. After several rear end and head-on crashes (B&M had one in Evertt MA) the design was reworked. Some variation of it was also part of the Budd disk brake used on lots of passenger equipment, including non-Budd-built equipment.
Thank You.
You're going to cause trouble with that Canadian Pacific PA!
Can someone comment on the BTC-required 'buffer' cars used on the pictured runs of #629 (about halfway down) where it seems RDCs are being run preferentially in the middle of the train? Was some kind of 'baggage' car required in any train, not just those with lightweight cars?
I had not thought about this before, but one thing that would restrict RDCs to the 'rear' of trains would be steam heating lines. Were CP's Dayliners equipped at some point not only with passthrough but with actual steam heat to be used when running essentially 'dead in train'?
It was common to see an RDC behind a locomotive hauled consist on CN especially in winter when they anticipated snow drifts might be encountered or for some added capacity. Below is train #603 (usually a 2 car RDC) at Stellarton, NS…… w/b from Sydney to Truro NS in Jan 1974.
Rock Island's RDC's were often the passenger car in the locomotive-hauled "Twin Star Rocket", which had a heavy mail & express business. Somewhere south of Kansas City, the RDC continued on its own after the mail and express reached its destination.
OvermodShould there be a sub-category for RDCs AS the locomotive?
https://donsdepot.donrossgroup.net/dr0108/rjb011.jpg
The other NYC operation I was thinking of was in the Detroit-Ann Arbor area. I know M&St.L. used boxcar trailers (painted silver!) with their RDC-4s before they were sold to C&O. C&O in turn used the RDC-4 pair with a heavyweight mail storage car. Maybe the weirdest trailer was Rock Island's observation/baggage car with the baggage room in the round end. I haven't found an online photo with CRI&P 70 with one of RI's RDC-3s, but here's a photo of the car, which was specifically rebuilt for use as an RDC trailer.
http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3227119
I recall reading the New Haven was very quietly "...taken to the woodshed..." by Budd when it was discovered they were running unpowered trailing cars behind RDC's. It amounted to "Do that if you want to, but only if you don't mind blowing the warranty!"
Needless to say the NH ceased the practice very quickly.
I'm presuming this question refers only to 'powered' RDCs. It might be mentioned here that some of the NYC examples involved operation of RDCs on the end of electric MU trains, in part because of the ban on diesel engines into GCT; if I remember correctly this was to facilitate the service (e.g. to Poughkeepsie) that was famously run with locomotive-hauled electric MUs before.
Should there be a sub-category for RDCs AS the locomotive? This was strictly frowned upon by Budd, the nominal reason being perceived fragility of the converters and lockup clutches in the driveline while under warranty, but several railroads were gearing up to use RDCs with some combination of trailers. Keilty covered some of this in Doodlebugs, bus aside from B&O I don't remember specific examples. Note that a typical gas-electric (or re-engined) car like those from EMC could typically handle at least one lightweight trailer; Brill even built special trailers to go with their gas cars. RDCs were designed different.
The Photo of the Day for 6/28/2019 shows a B&M train with GP7 1559, an RPO-Baggage, two conventional coaches, and three RDC-1s.
In MBTA days, after the great snowstorm of 1978, B&M used RDCs in locomotive-hauled trains, with shopmen even developing a special cable to allow RDCs to MU with GPs, permitting push-pull (more or less) operation.
The POTD by Jim Shaughnessy is the only pre-1978 photo of RDCs in a B&M locomotive-hauled train that I have seen. I know why they are there - the three Canadian Pacific RDCs (note the letterboards and end zebra stripes) are headed to Montreal. The train will separate at Wells River VT, with the GP7 and cars heading for Berlin NH via Woodsville and Littleton, and the RDCs to Montreal via St. Johnsbury and Newport VT. In the not too distant future, B&M and CP RDCs will follow the same procedure.
Though the photo isn't dated, I'm pretty sure it's in 1954. Flood damage to B&M's White Mountain Division had led to the cancellation of the joint B&M/CP Allouette via Concord and Plymouth NH, with CPR's brand new RDCs the replacement, running via White River Jct. VT. It didn't take long for B&M management to replace the Berlin train with an RDC-3 and an RDC-1. The trains ran combined south of Wells River until they were both discontinued. Both CP And B&M RDCs ran through to Montreal.
New York Central used RDCs mixed with both conventional and suburban equipment in various ways. Opening the floor for other examples.
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