I'm hoping my friend Bob Hughes (Grady, Bobbalew, The Keed) will give us a little insight here, as he knows more about trains than a human probably should.
At the end of the Minuteman Bikeway is this depot where an old Boston/Maine Railroad train resides. The fact that its initials were the same as mine was not lost to me.
I do like the track that leads to nowhere. Looks like a good place to park my bike.
Here's a funny but true story. When we were looking at apartments, we saw the overpass next to my future home, and I asked the landlard when he planned on telling us when the trains came through.
"What trains?" he says.
"The ones that travel along that track up there," I say.
He laughs and takes us up the slope. It's a FORMER train track now turned into a 10-mile bikeway. Oh. Whoops.
1 comment:
Budd RDC; “RDC” stands for “rail-diesel-car.” It was a self-powered commuter-car built 1949–1956. I think two GM tank-engines (or bus-engines) were slung under the frame, and each powered a Hydra-Matic automatic-transmission that directly drove a truck (wheels). The engines exhausted through a blister on top.
Boston & Maine (BM stands for bowel-movement; hup-hup, Mahooch) had the most. The idea was that the RDC-car could replace the steam (or diesel) powered commuter local, and all the crew (and costly operation) each entailed. The RDC fulfilled service-requirements, yet cut costs.
It was kind of like a trolley, yet didn’t need trolley-wire, generating stations, etc., etc.
The RDC was built by Budd Company in Philadelphia, who also built streamlined railroad coaches; e.g. the Burlington Zephyr equipment. If the car-body was clad in fluted stainless-steel, it was probably built by Budd. (The RDC has such a body.)
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budd_Rail_Diesel_Car)
Quite a few are still around, even still operating. Many are restored and just sitting, like the one ya photographed.
What ya seem to have here is the combination coach/baggage or coach/baggage/mail — fairly rare. At least two (maybe three) iterations of the RDC were available. The most common was all coach (which this ain’t).
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