Would a rdc ever pull a non powered coach or other? Or, does a rdc have enough power to pull a non powered coach?
I'm guessing not, because of power. I don't believe the 2 engines worked in tandem?
From what I gather the Budd Company recommended against any non-powered cars to be coupled to the RDC. Only one axle per truck was driven and I believe the weakness was in the transmission or drive shaft, not so much the diesel. Something about the hydraulic fluid overheating in the Allison transmission.
Some railroads were known to pull a coach. I'd have to do some specific research to find examples but is was done to a limited degree. I think the Rock Island was one of them.
Scroll down about midway here:
https://condrenrails.com/MRP/MemphisCentralStation/RI-Memphis-Pass-Pixs.htm
Good Luck, Ed
Nice thank you, I wasn't having much luck with pictures doing a quick google search. i was just wondering if under some unusal or specific circumstances they would hitch up a non powered couch for more seats. Like maybe on a game day or something.
If you did it, you voided the warranty
Budd did build "trailers" of sorts for the Boston and Maine. The RDC9 had only one diesel engine, one axle powered, no control cabs, and two extra seats bringing its capacity to 94.
These ran in some of the longest RDC lashups used by any railroad and it was assumed the combination of less weight with only one drive train and no control stations, combined with the fact that it ran in an "MU" configuration usually with more than one regular RDC, made the single axle 300 hp powerplant adequate.
Sheldon
Minneapolis & St.Louis bought an RDC to replace an old "doodlebug" railcar, which normally pulled a coach. As mentioned, GM told them not to try to pull anything with the RDC, but they did and the motor failed (and wasn't under warranty). They ended up using the old doodlebug to pull an air-conditioned stainless steel coach on the train.
In the link that Ed posted, there is a picture of an RDC-3 pulling what appears to be a fairly new Budd coach.
RDC's are really light compared to conventional non powered passenger cars.
The Budd coach is also much lighter than the concrete floored heavyweights many roads were still using and likely would have tried to use as trailers on the kinds of routes where RDC's would be used.
So, there is a big difference between a 118,000 lb RDC-1 trying to pull an 175,000 lb heavyweight coach, vs pulling a 120,000 lb Budd coach.
Other factors like track conditions and ruling grade might have a lot of effect on the performance of such a lash up.
Commonwealth Engineering, Budds licensee in Australia built 5 Budd Cars for the New South Wales Railways, one of which was the only purpose built Budd trailer ever built in the world to my knowledge unless some of the Brazilian scaled down for narrow gauge cars were trailers. It was not immediately obvious as there was a radiator dome for the Airconditioning power but it was shorter. All the NSW were shorter (75Ft) and slightly narrower to account for the limited loading gauge in that state.
Commonwealth Railways had 3 off the shelf RDC1s which regularly hauled a van or early in the piece, an ex Reading heavyweight passenger car. The terrain was quite easy with no major grades.
Also it was the RDC4 which was the shorter Budd car by 11 feet.
Cheers from Australia
Trevor
It's possible the Rock Island RDC in the pictures pulled a coach for a few trips - perhaps as a trial? The other pictures show an RDC running by itself.