Passenger Trains > Ex-New Haven RDCs in New Hampshire

New Hampshire was Boston and Maine territory, and the B&M had the largest fleet of Budd RDCs.  However, the New Haven was the third largest original owner of RDCs, and today New Haven cars can be found in various locations around the Granite State.  Three examples -

1) Restored RDC-1 41 was parked on state-owned trackage in Lincoln this afternoon.  This car has been at tourist operator Hobo Railroad's yard for the past year or so, and has been found at other museum operations in New England over the past couple of decades.

2) Former NH #23 is known as Millie on the Conway Scenic Railroad.  In the past couple of weeks it's been covering weekday North Conway - Bartlett runs.  Here it is at North Conway on August 31, 2019.  It's paint job is left over from its time on the Susquehanna On-Track service in Syracuse, NY.

3) A derelict RDC, still wearing Penn Central colors, sits at the current end of track on the former B&M Cheshire line at North Walpole.  I'm not completely certain this is an NH car, but NYC cars typically didn't have pilots as this one does.  It was coupled to a former B&M car on June 28, 2019.

Dave

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The last car is ex NYC M-453. The plow was acquired during it's life as Metro North #53. The car is heavily stripped and is one of few RDC's in New England that did not come from the MBTA. The car next to it is ex B&M 6154, which did see MBTA service. 

ST214 Wrote:
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> The last car is ex NYC M-453. The plow was
> acquired during it's life as Metro North #53. The
> car is heavily stripped and is one of few RDC's in
> New England that did not come from the MBTA. The
> car next to it is ex B&M 6154, which did see MBTA
> service. 

Thanks for the clarification ST214.  Do you know how the two cars ended up in the GMRC yard in Walpole?

Dave

No clue. I know the M-453 is missing many parts, not sure about the 6154, but it may have come from Metro North that way. I am not sure who the current owners of the cars are either, but there were some old heavyweights that sat in that same spot for years, I am not sure where they ended up.

DavidP Wrote:
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> ST214 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The last car is ex NYC M-453. The plow was
> > acquired during it's life as Metro North #53.
> The
> > car is heavily stripped and is one of few RDC's
> in
> > New England that did not come from the MBTA.
> The
> > car next to it is ex B&M 6154, which did see
> MBTA
> > service. 
>
> Thanks for the clarification ST214.  Do you know
> how the two cars ended up in the GMRC yard in
> Walpole?
>
> Dave

So B&M had the largest fleet of RDC's??? Who had the second largest, as the third largest was pointed out to be the New Haven. Not what I would have guessed, but always open to learning new things. 

So where did say the Reading Railroad, Canadian Pacific and Canadian National fit in? Does anyone know? Can anyone rank the top 5 RDC based railroads (or even go to the top 10???)? Just curious. 

The Pennsy seemed to have a lot of "doodlebugs" - self propelled rail car pre-dating the RDCs - but lacked the same embrace for an RDC fleet. Course the NYC and PRR merger was perhaps occupying management's minds as opposed to fleet renewals. Many of the smaller private railroads (regional based) went into the RDC business - the Reading, the Jersey Central, even the Lehigh Valley cut things back to just RDC's on the passenger front. On the flip side, CP and CN realized they didn't need to operate a labor intensive full train set of locomotive and coach cars, for its MANY branch lines in the Maritimes, main Eastern Corridor, across the prairies to connect towns, and Western Canada. Anyone know how these stacked up in say top five operators of RDC's. 

And ironically the SPV2000 - designed to be the successor of the standard RDC for the Amtrak era - didn't make it into main stream. And there were a few corridors where this type of train would have worked - New Haven to Springfield, Hiawatha Service, Piedmont Service, perhaps some other Midwest Corridors, and even the Pacific Northwest - as long as multiple units could be operated together. Colorado Rail Car (CRC) even wanted to try it on the Vermonter Route - New Haven to St. Albans (with an open mind towards expansion on Vermont branch lines where the cars could split apart or combine). There's even the "AllEarth Rail Vermont" vision, using refurbished RDC's, that seemingly aligns with the Green New Deal. AllEarth has been trying to do "something" since the around 2015 or so.    

Regarding the second largest original owner, I’m pretty sure that’s Canadian Pacific at 53 units. B&M owned 108.

Tom Coughlin
Stow, MA...

...not far from where B&M “Highliners”, New Haven “Shoreliners” and NYC “Beeliner’s”once plied the rails. Also, CP’s “Dayliners” frequently made it to Boston pooled with B&M’s RDC’s in service to/from Montreal.

Posted from iPhone



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/21 10:33 by tomcough.

tomcough Wrote:
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> Regarding the second largest original owner, I’m
> pretty sure that’s Canadian Pacific at 53 units.
> B&M owned 108.
>
> Tom Coughlin
> Stow, MA...
>
> ...not far from where B&M “Highliners”, New
> Haven “Shoreliners” and NYC
> “Berliner’s”once plied the rails. Also,
> CP’s “Dayliners” frequently made it to
> Boston pooled with B&M’s RDC’s in service
> to/from Montreal.
>
> Posted from iPhone
s, 
Pretty sure you mistyped "Beeliners", Tom.  I grew up in B&M territory.  They had RDC 1s, 2s, 3s and 9s, but no 4s.  And I believe they were the only railroad that had the cabless 9s.

Sums007, you're correct that the B&M was the only original buyer of the RDC-9.  However, several were later sold to the CN, which called the RDC-5s.

Dave

jp1822 Wrote:
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> And ironically the SPV2000 - designed to be the
> successor of the standard RDC for the Amtrak era -
> didn't make it into main stream. And there were a
> few corridors where this type of train would have
> worked - New Haven to Springfield, Hiawatha
> Service, Piedmont Service, perhaps some other
> Midwest Corridors, and even the Pacific Northwest
> - as long as multiple units could be operated
> together. Colorado Rail Car (CRC) even wanted to
> try it on the Vermonter Route - New Haven to St.
> Albans (with an open mind towards expansion on
> Vermont branch lines where the cars could split
> apart or combine). There's even the "AllEarth Rail
> Vermont" vision, using refurbished RDC's, that
> seemingly aligns with the Green New Deal. AllEarth
> has been trying to do "something" since the around
> 2015 or so.    

The State of Vermont has been a great discouragement not only in this endeavour but also in getting the "Vermonter" and "Ethan Allen Express" re-started. They certainly have dropped the ball.

jp1822 Wrote:
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> And ironically the SPV2000 - designed to be the successor of the standard RDC for the Amtrak era - didn't make it into main stream.

Sigh.  I know that the Budd Company rail car side has been elevated to sainthood, but the SPV2000 was a lemon.  The company was probably spiralling the drain by then and just cut too many corners.  I've heard stories of wiring that should have been in conduits just draped across the top of ceilings bad.

Still, America chose to go with airplanes and automobiles.

Brian