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  • Pre-Amtrak RDC Discussion

  • Discussion about RDC's, "doodlebugs," gas-electrics, etc.
Discussion about RDC's, "doodlebugs," gas-electrics, etc.
 #1428557  by Backshophoss
 
The RDC's had a habit of "disappearing" on CTC boards(not shunting)running as a single car and would run under Positive Block protection from interlocking to
interlocking on the NYC,then under PC,the "norm" was to run with 2 RDC's to ensure a track shunt for signals and crossing gates on the
Hudson line Croton-Poughkeepsie locals. The Harlem Line north of Brewster(Put Jct) was Manual Block to Dover Plains was normally a
single car run(after PC got "their" way in a Philly court to kill off Chatham service!).
PC followed the 2 car "norm" on the NHV-Springfield shuttles before and after "A" day.
After the New Haven+PC(shotgun) merger and the creation of the "Metro Region" for all service out of GCT.
The Danbury Branch (other than the 2 thru peak service trains) and the Waterbury Branch services were 1 or 2 car RDC runs

The RDG RDCs used on the "Wall Street" NWK -RDG Terminal(Philly) run used an "exciter"to ensure track shunting.
The service went to the CNJ Jersey City Terminal untill rerouted on the NEC at Hunter to Newark Penn Station.
 #1428565  by bdawe
 
I've heard about the Reading exciter, I hadn't heard about the NYC tread breaks.

Given that this problem seems logically universal, why didn't Budd have their own in house solution to the shunting issue? If so, does anyone know what, say, WP did to solve this problem on the Zephyrette, or VIA dayliners on Vancouver Island?
 #1428572  by NS VIA FAN
 
Around 1965....CN picked up several B&M RDC units including RDC-9s that were intended as a trailer with a single engine and no control cab. (CN called them RDC-5s)
>>>>>>>>>>
CN extensively rebuilt the xB&M units as well as their own with full reclining seats, carpeting, snack-bars, tables etc and they lasted well into the VIA era. (below are RDC-1s....not the xB&M units)
Last edited by NS VIA FAN on Thu Apr 20, 2017 5:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
 #1428713  by NS VIA FAN
 
NS VIA FAN wrote:Around 1965....CN picked up several B&M RDC units including RDC-9s that were intended as a trailer with a single engine and no control cab. (CN called them RDC-5s)
CN extensively rebuilt the xB&M units as well as their own with full reclining seats, carpeting, snack-bars, tables etc and they lasted well into the VIA era....
Here's some interior shots:
 #1428845  by ExCon90
 
Allen Hazen wrote: Are you sure that New Haven -> Springfield -> Boston was called the "Airline" route? I remember it as being the "Inland" route. ("Airline route," in Connecticut railroad parlance, was a -- more direct looking on a map -- route that went north-east from New Haven, mostly on track long since abandoned, though I think the existing freight route from New Haven to Middletown CT was part of it.)
-- A lot of the discussion so far on this string has been of Boston and Maine RDC service. Springfield to Boston as part of the Inland Route would have been on the Boston and Albany… which was a New York Central subsidiary, and so might have used NYC Budd cars(*). Or was there a more devious way of getting from Springfield to Boston using B&M?

(*) I have read that the NY Central did use its Budd cars on the B&A. I think that was where the NYC discovered that the Budds, which were fairly light in weight, didn't reliably activate track circuits: so the NYC installed tread brakes on them, replacing or supplementing the disc brakes they were delivered with, so that friction of the brake shoes on the wheel treads would scrape rust off them, and so make them better electrical conductors for the signal-activating track circuits.
The Inland Route that I know of was the one via Willimantic, which I think joined the Shore Line at Readville and was severed (in a hurricane?) sometime prior to the late 1950's. The B&A operated RDC's, which the NYC called Beeliners; by the end they were running all the way from Albany to Boston (and the seats would become uncomfortable long before the trip was over).