Nostalgia & History > NP RDC B42 @ Duluth 1963

Bruce Black shot this NP RDC on Sept. 22, 1963 @ Duluth, MN ... his slide mount note said it was x-DM&IR #1

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WOW!
Bob

Nice photo.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Very cool.

The area of this shot is mostly gone, replaced by the concrete of I35, so that makes this a really
unique shot, thanks for posting.

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

What a great mode of transportation the RDC was. What a great addition to the Amtrak roster this would be  for the lower patronized but still necessary route. Does anyone have any route suggestions for a 2016 RDC? 

Houston-Dallas.  

Economics of operating a single RDC on long-haul service in mainline territory are awful. If you're going to have several cars, the economics of operating a traditional train with locomotive and passenger cars are better. Even if the Budd SPV-2000 hadn't had such quality problems with its mechanicals, I think the financials would have killed it for anything except suburban use.

Great photo.  Thanks for sharing.

ctillnc Wrote:
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> Economics of operating a single RDC on long-haul
> service in mainline territory are awful. If you're
> going to have several cars, the economics of
> operating a traditional train with locomotive and
> passenger cars are better. Even if the Budd
> SPV-2000 hadn't had such quality problems with its
> mechanicals, I think the financials would have
> killed it for anything except suburban use.

That may be, but RDCs were used on several longer (over 100 miles) routes.  DM & IR ran its RDC on the 200-mile Duluth - Ely route.  B & O used them for its Daylight Speedliner service between Pittsburgh, Washington and Balitmore.  BC Rail ran them on long runs out of North Vancouver.  Western Pacific probably had the longest runs on the Oakland - Salt Lake City route.

Even today, VIA's Sudbury - White River train operates on a rather long route with RDCs.

Did this car eventually make it to Amtrak in Black Hawk service? Seems to me an NP RDC was rebuilt (or maybe scavenged) at the Reading shops in the early '70's.

CN and CP seemed to have some pretty good runs, particularly in the prairie.

All NP RDCs (B-30, B-31, B32, B-40, B-41, and B-42) were sold to Amtrak in August 1972.

I would suggest Eugene to Medford with some really nice scenery for the tourists between Grants Pass and Riddle, or howabout over the hill to Weed and some more beautiful scenery. (We're talking Oregon here.)

Robert McCreary
Myrtle Creek, OR

FWIW: Colorado railcar attempted to ressurrect the RDC with their version a few years ago, and it was not a success.

Westside Express Service uses Colorado Railcar units for their service between Wilsonville and Beaverton, Oregon.  They also have two RDCs for backup.  I rode both the Colorado Railcars and the RDCs between Beaverton and Wilsonville on October 14, 2016.  In my opinion, the "ancient" RDCs were quieter and rode smoother than the newer Colorado Railcars.

​1)  WES RDCs at Wilsonville station - 10/14/2016

​2) WES Colorado Railcar 1001 in shop at Wilsonville.

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RDC's are not real good on climbing hills, I don't remember the maximum grade though. The Weed, Calif to Siskiyou Summit/then Medford Oregon has a 3% grade, which causes all sorts of greif with good ideas like this.

bmccreary Wrote:
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> I would suggest Eugene to Medford with some really
> nice scenery for the tourists between Grants Pass
> and Riddle, or howabout over the hill to Weed and
> some more beautiful scenery. (We're talking Oregon
> here.)

TCnR Wrote:
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> RDC's are not real good on climbing hills, I don't
> remember the maximum grade though. The Weed, Calif
> to Siskiyou Summit/then Medford Oregon has a 3%
> grade, which causes all sorts of greif with good
> ideas like this.

Hummmmnn!  I've run an RDC numberous times on the DM&IR's (now CN) 3% grade, and never noticed there was a problem.
-Larry Doyle

Interesting to hear, I need to dig into this, not that I have an RDC to try out.

Anybody know the grades on the BCR that the Budd cars ran on??