It is not that hard to learn the older electrical systems, what most people think they should learn first is the schematic, in my opinion you should learn how the system works when everything is in working order first, then once you have that knowledge delve into the schematic. It is hard to troubleshoot something if you don't have a clue how it worked in the first place. The railroads traditionally handed the electrician a schematic and said go fix it, this did not work out to well and that mentality still exists to this day, except now they rely on the computer to tell them what to fix. RDC's are very simple electrically, it is finding the obscure parts that has been the downfall of most groups operating them.

Mike Tillger

The RDC isn't that hard to understand from an electrical point of view. In my experience the RDC that I worked on had been subject to little/no maintenance for decades - in fact each of its Detroit 6-110's were running on less than 6 cylinders. The historical societies that own them today can take more care for them as they want to see them restored/operated.



To each his own. Many of the RDCs I have been on were quite comfortable and free of diesel fumes. Not to be confused with the lounge in say the Dover Harbor but a lot better than a Jersey Arrow any day.

In into the glorious days of the Penniless Central, it was remarkable the Roger Williams equipment was running at all. That it survived that era and was preserved is even more amazing.

PC

Yes, amazing. I think one of the other amazing RDC preservation stories is the C&NW car that ended up down at French Lick, Indiana. The Chicago & North Western had 3 RDC's that they tried in commuter passenger service but decided to go the Bi-Level route and traded them to the C&O, for freight equipment as I recall. Years later, the railroad purchased a used Budd car that had been transfigured for trackwork by a company that was going to try to be competitive with Sperry Rail Service, but never got off the ground. That purchase by the North Westrern, although logical, was pretty amazing in itself, but the car going down to French Lick in southern Indiana, is one that I still do not understand. If it had been preserved at Union, in C&NW's "backyard" it might have made some sense, but going to the museum in French Lick in southern Indiana, never to be used for anything, is hard to fathom.

Les

The RDCs I rode most frequently were on the Jersey Central, the Newark-Elizabethport train in particular. I loved the ride, and don,t remember excessive fumes.

Lee Carlson

I wonder what happened to the RDC the C&EI ran for a few years.

Dave Huffman

I did some RDC related electrical work a year ago, using some documentation provided by Mike Tilger, and didn't find them to be complicated electrically at all. True, they use different wire number conventions than Alco or GE, (which in turn are different than EMD, which are different than BLW, ad naseum...), but once you have your components identified and have an idea of what does what, they are pretty simple.

Its just a matter of mentally shifting gears. You want complicated, look at an AC6000 from GE. Computers and fiber optics, and who knows what is in those computer programs. (Yet they still use the 17LV66J10 relay on the alarm circuit, trainline 2, which goes back to the days of Simplified Amplidyne. Relays aren't dead...yet).

The main 'problem' with an RDC is that it is an air conditioned passenger car with its own propulsion system, and not a lot of extra room underneath to work with. The fact that the RDC could be a self contained train was it's main selling point. Also, Budd did a decent job of making it easy to change an engine and transmission, if you had the right fixtures and tools.

And I've been gassed out in a few EMD cabs. Its all a matter of keeping the joints in the exhaust system tight. I rode the CNJ and RDG cars a few times, and don't recall any gas issues, although it WAS more than a few rears ago.

If you really like RDC's in general (and not specifically the Roger Williams set), TVRM in Chattanooga has several we will gladly sell or horse-trade . . .

Alan Maples
TVRM

per Les's post , here is CNW 430 in French Lick last month


Dean Levin

Let me appologize in advance for straying from the topic, but these comments bothered me a little bit. I own four locomotives, two of which are in daily service, and all of which are EMD. Over the years, I have helped "these buff outfits" maintain both Alcos (251s and 539s) and GEs, as well as working on them on a professional, paying basis for various entities. I certainly do not know all there is to know about them, but I haven't had a problem yet on any make that I couldn't overcome.

I have a very good friend for nearly 20 years now that works here in the neighborhood, and he's Mr. EMD. He is an EMD trained mechanic and a damn good one; my prefered source for any EMD problem I can't handle. He says, "EMD is perfect, their poop don't stink, they're God's gift to the railroad, Alcos and GEs are garbage, you can't get parts, they're bastards, I can't understand why you waste your time with that GE and Alco junk". I listened to this BS for a long time, understanding that we're friends and this was more or less good natured ribbing. Finally one day he started his ration of BS and after listening patiently I looked at him and told him that "a good mechanic could work on any of them"! He hasn't had much to say about it for some time now.

I've worked on and operated GP-30s, C420s, and U23Bs among a host of others. Assuming that all are in good shape and properly maintained/adjusted, the U23B will move more tonnage while the other two "sit and spin" and the C420 will do everything the GP30 will with 250 fewer HP and 4 fewer cylinders. If I need to sort the yard the C420 is the choice with quicker response than the EMD and less "thinking about it" and more "doing it" than the U boat.

EMD wire just plain sucks unless its been rewired. EMD's turbo is an expensive and sensitive device costing easily twice what a similar Alco or GE turbo does to rebuild and requiring much more time to change. GE carbodies are junk; I don't know where they got the steel, but I hope they've changed suppliers. The GE FB-2 truck is a sorry riding piece of equipment even on a good day. Somebody at Alco actually thought that a solid Aluminum piston in a 251 Alco was a good idea. Alco and their bolt stretch gage when the rest of the world can make a torque wrench work? Really? Each brand has its own shortcomings, its just a factor of which ones you are going to deal with.

So, with all due respect, we "buff outfits" CAN maintain and operate the "quixotic" no problem. Maybe you're just not around the right "buff outfit".