Whatever happened to the jet-powered RDC (M-497)?

FYI--
Don Wetzel and I have collaborated on a book about the M497.
We're currently seeking a publisher.
We must be doing ok as we've been rejected a couple of times already.
Anyone want to publish it?
Hank Morris

Why don't you contact Ed Nowak and see if you can get his publisher to take a gander at it?

Dieter

Can you provide his e-mail address?

Mr. Wetzel,

Thanks for a great, informative post. Never thought when I started this thread that I'd hear from the person who actually ran the car! Very interesting reading.

Thanks again!

Joe P
Long Live The EL!
www.geocities.com/jmpwpd29

Have you tried TLC or Morning Sun Books? They've both published numerous NYC related books in the past decade or so.

You might also contact Scott Trostle the author of the DTI history book as he is his own publisher and does other books also.

Rick

If you can supply the contact info, I'll contact him.

Here is the story from Harold Crouch, who helped re-assemble M-497 *after* the tests were completed. This was taken from The Semaphore, the newsletter of the Rochester Chapter NRHS.

December 2003 Rochester Chapter NRHS “The Semaphore”
Follow-up on RDC M-497
Harold Crouch writes: "The Nov. issue of The Semaphore arrived and another good issue too. I noted the item concerning the NYC's jet-propelled Bud RDC-#497. The interesting part came AFTER the test was over! "After the test, #497 sat out behind Collinwood Locomotive Shop for a while. Finally, it was decided to put the car back in service once more. Accordingly, #497 was sent to Beech Grove Passenger Car Shop for restoration. Then came the awful truth!! Where are the bits and pieces that form the front of the car?

"When this project started, #497 was brought into Collinwood Diesel Locomotive Shop where the front end of the car was dismantled in order to apply the streamlined "nose". The bits and pieces were laid on the floor alongside of #497. With the modification completed #497 was sent to Bryan, Ohio for the test. "With the car gone, a laborer came and took all this material to the scrap car! So for the restoration, where are we to obtain replacement parts, as the Budd Company was out of production of these parts.

"At this time, I was in the Locomotive Engineering Dept. in New York City, and so was assigned the task of trying to locate replacement parts! Calling the Boston & Maine Railroad, the Reading Railroad and the B&O Railroad, the missing parts were scrounged up together with what Beech Grove could manufacture themselves.

"While all this was going on, a phone call from the Beech Grove Shop manager was received saying that they were car men and didn't know much about diesel engines, but believed that there were supposed to be two diesel engines (GM Model 110) with the #497; but nothing that resembled a diesel engine could be found! I said that I would call him back. A quick call to Collinwood Backshop turned up the fact that the two engines from #497 had been overhauled and sent to Harmon Electric Shop as spares for the other Budd cars. "Thus the 497 returned to service while I went on to make some more "improvements" to the Budd cars."

[Harold wrote this article while undergoing recuperation at a rehabilitation center from a recent knee replacement surgery. We wish him well during his stay — and look forward to more interesting articles of his experiences while working for the New York Central]

This refers to Harold Crouch's recollection of the restroration of the NYC M-497 after the high speed project- published in the December 2003 NRHS journal, The Semaphore.

It's good to know Harold is still around and kicking- even with a rebuilt knee! Harold and I were associated for a number of years at the NYC Tech Research Department at Collinwood, Cleveland. I recall I was a member of a crew building a framework on a flat car to hold dunnage bags to "float" a guided missle during RR transit- an attempt to show the U.S.Government that missles could move safely on RR's. A 2 X 4 slipped from my hand and beaned poor Harold right on the coconut. Anybody else might have returned the favor or, at the least, refered to the marital status of my parents. Harold just gave me a look, rubbed his head and went back to work- a very nice man, indeed. But I digress.

I had moved on after the M-497 project and was not aware of the details of the rebuild at Beech Grove. However, I do want to make certain the reader knows the Detriot Diesels were always installed and operating during the test runs, the press show in New York City and the static tests conducted at Collinwood after that. We needed them operating to provide electrical power for jet engine starting, car power and instrumentation. They also had to be operating during the high speed runs to to provide compressed air for braking. An aside- during our first run, the diesels shut down due to overtemping because of the hot jet engine exhaust playing over the cooling radiators. On subsequent runs, I fashioned a wooden wedge to block the overtemp relay closed (open?) to allow the diesels to keep running. Rather burn up an engine than run out of air! They survived just fine.

Also, to be certain the reader doesn't come away with a misconception- there was a diesel locomotive facility at Beech Grove. I'm not certain about where and when the diesels were pulled (probably someone in authority thought that as long as the car was seeing major work, they might just as well pull and overhaul the propulsion engines) The Collinwood Diesel Terminal on the South side of the tracks had experience with Budds and they MIGHT have pulled them before the trip to Beech Grove rather than the Back Shop. I just don't know.

Insofar as the pieces and parts are concerned- again, I would like to stress that the streamlining was welded ON to the car- no stucture was disturbed whatsoever. I inspected my photos (I possess the entire photo documentation of the M-497) and find the components that Harold referred to were possibly "bolt ons" such as flag holders, etc. There might have been others but I couldn't locate them in my shop photos.

Again- if anyone would like more data, please advise.

Donald C. Wetzel

That is good info... I always thought Beech Grove was "just" a car shop, not a mechanical shop. Thank you for adding that.

-otto-

As a bit of further information about Beech Grove.

There was a steam locomotive shop prior to the diesels. As late as Penn Central there was enough expertise on hand to overhaul steam wreck derricks and convert the boilers from coal fired to oil fired, repair or replace boilers including hydrotesting and test the derricks with heavy lift loads before being shipped.

As to the front fairing.
As Don Wetzel related, the front was attached to the existing "B" end. We have several photos that confirm this.
If it were possible to upload photos to this site I could post them as the "Final Word."

I remember reading in Trains magazine back in 1996 I think it was that a company called Megtrans was involved in the M-497 project. Can anyone shed any light on this?

-otto-

Megtrans is not a company. It is a concept.
Like today, politicians and concerned citizens were worried about “Megtrans.” Megtrans is an acronym for Megalopolitan Transportation—a megalopolis being a heavily populated stretch in which one metropolitan cluster of city and suburbs virtually grows into another. It was hoped that the jet-powered rail car would provide operating data that could herald a new era in railroad commuting in these megalapolitan areas.
This doesn't mean the solution was to use jet-powered RDCs. Rather, the jet-powered test bed (M-497) was expected to provide operating data that would validate whether the existing rail physical plant of the day could handle such traffic. The M-497 did, indeed, provide these data.
It was learned that the tracks of the day COULD handle 180+ mph speeds.