NYC Budd RDC Stripes/No-Stripes

I've inherited a couple of the Proto 1000 NYC Budd cars, which lack the multi-color "scare Stripes" on the nose. Two questions:

Did any NYC Budd cars operate this way (ie were the stripes added as an afterthought, following delivery?)

Does anybody make these stripes as decals in HO?

march hare wrote:(ie were the stripes added as an afterthought, following delivery?)

Yes.

Does anybody make these stripes as decals in HO?

Yes.

http://www.tmrdistributing.com/misc-decals.htm

I can also attest that they were used. When I was a small kid, we took a return trip from visiting relatives on the old Boston and Albany route to Boston, using a single New York Central RDC. It bore these stripes, and oddly enough, I remember also that it did not have the dual pilots on both ends, as I had been used to seeing around home on Boston and Maine and New Haven RDC's. As a possibility, if you can't find the correct decals, any good auto accessory store will carry pin-striping that comes in a roll, is easy to use, sticks forever, and comes in a variety of different colors, hues, and widths. For roughly what the decal manufacturers will charge you for a set of decals, you can purchase a roll of pin-striping that will probably do 100 HO cars.

"Did any NYC Budd cars operate this way ?" i.e. without stripes.
Yes! There are many pictures out there of NYC RDCs operating without the diagonal stripes. I've seen one photo without stripes dated Grayling, MI,1959. All of the photos I've seen from the 1960s did have the stripes.

George Elwood's Fallen Flags website has a number of RDC photos, with and without stripes.

Wellesley Farms MA - c 1958
http://gelwood.railfan.net/nyc/nyc-rdc-adl.jpg

Wellesley Farms MA - c 1959
http://gelwood.railfan.net/nyc/nyc-rdc-bdl.jpg

When I was a yard clerk at Harmon in 1960 and 1961, the Budd cars didn't have the "scare stripes" on the ends. Just another time marker.
Gordon Davids

Here's some interesting info on this subject, see following link:

http://wabashcustomdecals.com/images/106ltgd.jpg

I've traded emails with the gentleman from Great Decals regarding the zebra safety stripes. I'm told, out of stock and out of production with no indication of any more runs in the near future. I see Champ has listed on their website in the NYC section, a zebra safety stripes set S-110, however no other details. Anyone know if this decal set is applicable to Budd cars?

the zebra stipes were added around 1961 account single RDCS didnot always shunt signals and highway crossings causing the apparatus to not function properly. the stripes were added for visibility. as the director at H.M. tower in the early 1970's occasionally a BUDD car would disappear from the model board and suddenly reappear and activate the approach alarm. i took photographs of the RDCS in harmon in 1973 and painted zebra stripes on my H.O. scale BUDD cars. it is not difficult to do if you have good photos to work with.

This has become a new topic with the introduction of the Rapido HO-gauge RDCs. Owner at Rapido is convinced that there were no NYC RDCs w/o the stripes.

John

Per my post to this forum on 12 Dec 2008 at 22:51, the NYC RDC Cars on the Hudson Division did not have the high visibility end stripes in 1960. A later post by someone else indicates that those stripes were applied by NYC in 1961. That corresponds with my recollection, although I did not see cars with the stripes in the summer of 1961. They were probably applied later in the year. I was there, I knew then what I was seeing and I recall it clearly today, regardless of the model manufacturer's opinion.

- Gordon Davids

In the book"New York Central's Later Power 1910-1968" by Stauffer/May,pgs 378-385 shows in B/W photos the "as delivered"
unpainted Stainless steel fronts and the "Zebra striped" Fronts done in the early '60's.
The stripes were adapted from the striping used on NYC's "motor" cars(Doodlebugs).
Single RDC's were operated under Positive Block in front,and behind,had a bad habit of"disappearing"
from Interlocking model boards and CTC machine model boards.

Am I right in remembering that RDC cars were built with disk brakes, and that New York Central later retrofitted conventional tread brakes, in the hope that having the wheel treads scoured by the brake shoes would improve the electrical conductivity and make the cars shunt the track circuits? (The RDC having been introduced before cell phones and satellite/GPS based positive train control, not shunting track circuits was a real safety concern!)

DocJohn wrote:This has become a new topic with the introduction of the Rapido HO-gauge RDCs. Owner at Rapido is convinced that there were no NYC RDCs w/o the stripes.

John

Photos of the NYC RDCs without stripes are here:
http://abpr2.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi? ... tric_1.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://canadasouthern.com/caso/images/nyc-m457.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://canadasouthern.com/caso/images/nyc-m457-1.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://photos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo ... 379639.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

DocJohn wrote:This has become a new topic with the introduction of the Rapido HO-gauge RDCs. Owner at Rapido is convinced that there were no NYC RDCs w/o the stripes.

John

Well, I certainly hope someone is kind enough to send that gentleman the links just provided above! Rather hard to argue with those.

DocJohn wrote:This has become a new topic with the introduction of the Rapido HO-gauge RDCs. Owner at Rapido is convinced that there were no NYC RDCs w/o the stripes.

John

I don't think that is true. They just decided not to produce that style of paint (or non-paint).

-otto-

Related question: why didn't NYC RDC's have pilots?