Budd RDC
The Budd Rail Diesel Car, RDC or Buddliner is a self-propelled diesel multiple unit (DMU) railcar. Between 1949 and 1962, 398 RDCs were built by the Budd Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The cars were primarily adopted for passenger service in rural areas with low traffic density or in short-haul commuter service, and were less expensive to operate in this context than a traditional diesel locomotive-drawn train with coaches. The cars could be used singly or several could be coupled together in train sets and controlled from the cab of the front unit. The RDC was one of the few DMU trains to achieve commercial success in North America. RDC trains were an early example of self-contained diesel multiple unit trains, an arrangement now in common use by railways all over the world.
ATSF only owned two RDC-1, DC-191 and DC-192. After a 1956 wreck, the DC-192 was rebuilt as an RDC-2. The RDC-1 is an all-passenger coach seating 90 passengers, the RDC-2 has a baggage and passenger coach configuration (combine) seating 70 passengers. ATSF ran these two units in tandem.
AZL Budd RDC
AZL produced two versions of the Budd RDC:
RDC-1: an all-passenger coach and RDC-2: a passenger coach with a baggage compartment.
I have two Budd RDC-1 of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe (ATSF) Railroad Company of the first generation. Beginning March 2017, a second run with blackened underframe was produced .
The underframe was separated by holding the body/shell and pulling the underframe. One underframe of my two RDCs did not get off easily off as it was glued (!) to the body. The underframe could finally be separated with the help of a screwdriver.
Removing the shell
Put two toothsticks between shell and body. Hold the shell and body and pull them apart.
If one is not careful the truck and the shaft may fall off. Put the shaft back into the body, then take the truck, insert the shaft and clip the truck back to the body.
The colour of the underframe is uniformly silver. The background was painted in a dark grey to make the apparatus more visible.
The Budd RDC was digitalized with the TCS Z2 decoder.
above: analog; below: digital
The blue wire is not needed. Therefore, it was cut off.
Closeup: Mainboard
Closeup: LED PCB
The two units ran in tandem. Therefore, the headlights remain on F0 and the rear lights were mapped to F1.