B&M RDC Paint Schemes?

I just picked up a set of N scale decals for my undecorated Kato RDC-2. I have been looking around online and so far the vast majority of photos show the ends unpainted, BUT the decals say to paint the ends white. I have seen some photos of the car ends done in white in books.

Were the cars perhaps delivered with white ends, and possibly stripped/rebuilt later on and the white paint left off?

Any help would be appreciated!

Nell, all you had to do is ask the old guy (me), so here goes, B&M "Highliners" in a nutshell.

From the date of their purchase until early in 1955, they all were left in bare metal with no emblems.

From 1955 to 1956, minuteman emblems were applied to bare metal under the engineer's and fireman's windows on both ends.

A year after Pat McGinnis took over the presidency of the B&M (1957), the fronts and backs of all Budds were painted white with a black center door and two BM emblems on both ends. The emblems consisted of a blue "B" and a white "M" trimmed with black.

The B&M declared bankruptcy in 1970, from that point on, there were no more re-paints, just the standard BM emblem as above, applied to bare metal.
Sometime around 1972 the standard BM emblem was changed to a blue "B" with white trim and a white "M" trimmed in black.

"T" emblems were applied to al B&M Budds on the sides in the middle of the window band in late 1973 early 1974.

A whole hodgepodge of "T" purple schemes started showing up in 1976, ranging from the conservative (purple letterboard), to the attractive (purple window band trimmed with yellow stripes). Some cars were so quickly given the "T" treatment, that the B&M emblems were peeled off the ends without removing the adhesive residue, which quickly attracted road grime in the shape of the B&M emblem, this was soon dubbed the "dirt scheme".

Another, often overlooked fact about B&M Budds was that the undercarriage, from the time they were built, right up until the mid 1970's were painted "Navy Blue", with the exception of the stainless steel engine covers and battery box covers. But, then again, B&M Budds were usually so dirty, you couldn't see the blue paint.

Dave comes through with all the details I need!! (well, so far, anyway!)

OK, sooooo now I have another question: in later years, did the white just wear off, or was it actually stipped off and new decals applied? Just wondering...

The decals have the white "B" with black trim, but the "B" is just the solid blue. So according to Dave's info, the decals are intended for use on a model with the painted ends. A nit-pick, to be sure, but still...

Another detail that is good to know is the black painted center door, and the BLUE underside! BLUE?? I'd LOVE to see a color builder's photo that shows that detail! Now I am not so sure my project is as simple as I thought it was going to be.

The BM emblem with the BLUE "B" and the WHITE "M" trimmed with BLACK was used on the WHITE-painted ends and the BARE FINNISH ends as well. In the 1970's, B&M stopped painting the ends, but continued using the same decal. When they ran out of those decals, the new ones they ordered came through with the "B" trimmed in white.

OK, so I am still good.

Now... that blue underside............. Actually, now that I think of it, I had an old HO scale Athearn RDC at one point, and if I remember correctly, the bottom was indeed a dark blue.

OK, here's another question. What color were the seats? The car at Bedford MA has dark blue seats now, but just how correct is that?

When originally delivered, the seats were covered in fabric, which by the time I hired out on the B&M was so stained and faded, its hard to remember what color they were. In the Budd rebuild program of the early 70's, the seats were recovered with the dark blue vinyl, exactly like the material on Bedford's 6211. The window shades seemed to be a beige color originally and then replaced by grey vinyl, then removed altogether in the early 70's.

I remember the hard, blue plastic seat upholstery,
and then, if you want to make an authentic older car, you have to tint the windows yellow and scour them well with fine steel wool, to simulate the plexiglass outer windows.

Eliphaz wrote:... and then, if you want to make an authentic older car, you have to tint the windows yellow and scour them well with fine steel wool, to simulate the plexiglass outer windows.

I have decided to go with the plain metal ends, not the white ones. I just don't trust myself to get a decent spray-job done right now. So it sounds like I can use the dark blue color for the seats, which you can indeed see through the windows of the model.

For folks looking to model the older scheme, we need to pick the brains of folks older than Dave...............

Carl Byron had this to say about the original seats:

The original seats were walkover type; with 1"-- 2" of padding on the back and 2:-3" on the bottom. I believe their color was a medium-to-dark blue. They were manufactured by Heywood Wakefield in Gardner, MA, by the way. The aisle was covered with a continuous linoleum runner while 9" square linoleum tile were used under the seats. Believe both were a dark swirl pattern which include blue, beige, gray and probably a little black.

All got dirty soon enough!

I saw a nice brass model of an RDC in the original minuteman scheme, and the seats were maroon. Interesting...

I rode the RDCs fairly often, starting about 1964. The RDC-1s and -2s had smoking & non-smoking ends. The non-smoking end used blue-gray cloth upholstery, the smoking end red naugahyde-type vinyl. More here: http://www.faracresfarm.com/jbvb/rr/bmr ... e.html#RDC" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;