Budd Company

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The Budd Company
Founded1912; 112 years ago (1912)
Defunct2014
FateBankruptcy
SuccessorBombardier Transportation
Headquarters
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
,
United States
Area served
Worldwide
Edward G. Budd Manufacturing Company
The Budd manufacturing facility in Philadelphia
Budd Company is located in Philadelphia
Budd Company
Budd Company is located in Pennsylvania
Budd Company
Budd Company is located in the United States
Budd Company
Location2450 W. Hunting Park Ave., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Coordinates40°00′29.6″N 75°10′08.7″W / 40.008222°N 75.169083°W / 40.008222; -75.169083
Area70 acres (28 ha)
Built1917
ArchitectGiffels & Vallet, Inc.; Albert Kahn & Associates
Architectural style20th Century Industrial
NRHP reference No.07001328[1]
Added to NRHPDecember 27, 2007

The Budd Company was a 20th-century metal fabricator, a major supplier of body components to the

passenger rail cars,[2] airframes, missile and space vehicles, and various defense products.[3]

Budd was founded in 1912 in Philadelphia by

anti-corrosion
properties in the 1930s.

Budd Company became part of Budd

Martinrea International in 2006. No longer an operating company, Budd filed for bankruptcy in 2014. It currently exists to provide benefits to its retirees.[4]

Automobiles

First all-steel sedan
by Edward G Budd Manufacturing Company of Philadelphia for John and Horace Dodge[5]

Edward G. Budd developed the first all-steel automobile bodies. His first major supporters were the Dodge brothers. Following discussions which began in 1913, the brothers purchased from Budd 70,000 all-steel open touring bodies in 1916. They were soon followed by an all-steel Dodge sedan.[5][6]

Budd Company

Wanderer; and earned royalties from Bliss (who built bodies for Citroën and Ford of Britain). The Budd Company also created the first "safety" two-piece truck wheel, used extensively in World War II, and also built truck cargo bodies for the US military.[citation needed
]

Following the introduction of the "

SMC body parts manufactured by Budd Plastics – such as quarter panels, roof skin, headlamp covers, and trunk lids.[citation needed
]

Railroads

Passenger cars

From the 1930s until 1987, the Budd Company was a leading manufacturer of stainless steel streamlined passenger rolling stock for a number of railroads; many of these were known, at least colloquially, as "silverliners".

Early years

Silver Slipper
Pioneer Zephyr
R11
subway car

After briefly dabbling with French

Silver Slipper),[8] they built the Pioneer Zephyr for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad in 1934, the first of several integrated streamliner trainsets. The General Pershing Zephyr of 1938 pioneered the use of disc brakes on railroad passenger cars.[9] Budd built thousands of streamlined lightweight stainless steel passenger cars
for new trains in the US in the 1930s through the 1980s.

In 1949, Budd built ten prototype stainless steel R11 subway cars for the New York Board of Transportation;[10] these were intended for the Second Avenue Subway.[11]

In the late 1940s, the

Chicago, Illinois, without having to add more cars. Chicago Union Station
charged railroads by the length of each train.

Budd proposed coaches that were taller than the typical lightweight passenger car while keeping the streamlined car's length of 85 feet but with double the capacity of cars. To address the issue of the conductor collecting tickets without having to climb stairs, the upper level was designed with its center portion open so that the conductor could reach the tickets from upper-level passengers. Rows of individual seats on each side of the car provided the increase in seating capacity.

The unique design of the upper level's open center section led to the cars being called "Gallery" cars. Burlington approved the design and ordered 30 cars. These cars, built as Budd lot 9679–041, were delivered between August 1950 and January 1951 and not only marked a change in how the commuters were handled but were the first cars in commuter service to have air conditioning. The Burlington retrofitted its earlier cars with air conditioning once the new cars entered service.

With the first of the new commuter cars in service on the Burlington, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway also approached Budd to improve their rolling stock. In September 1952, the Santa Fe placed an order for two two-level prototypes, Budd's Lot 9679–129. Carrying the numbers 526 and 527, they were delivered in July 1954, at which time both were placed into service for evaluation.

These prototypes had seating on both levels, stairs on one end to provide access to single-level cars, a stairway at the center of the car for access to toilets on the lower level, and a side door for passenger access. The lower floor also contained various mechanical and pneumatic equipment that otherwise would be mounted below the floors of single-level cars.

With the two Hi-Level prototypes in service proving to not only meet the needs of line but also being popular with passengers, the Santa Fe again approached Budd with the idea of building additional two-level cars.

Budd developed another generation of cars for Santa Fe in five different configurations: step-down coaches like the two prototype cars, convertible coaches which could have one end of the car converted from the high level on both ends to a step-down car as needed, coaches with both ends of the car having the end door at the upper level's height to provide access to adjoining passenger cars, and dining and lounge cars (with kitchens on the lower level) with partially glassed-in roofs similar to the Big Dome lounge cars that were also built by Budd and delivered around the time the prototype Hi-Level cars were built.

The order for additional cars was placed in March 1955 for 10 68-seat step-down coaches (delivered between December 1955 and January 1956 and numbered 528 to 537), 25 72-seat Hi-Level coaches (delivered between January and April 1956 numbered 700 to 724), six 60-seat bar/lounge/news-stand coaches with 26-seat lower-level lounges (delivered between May and June 1956), and six 80-seat dining cars (delivered between June and August 1956 numbered 650 to 655).

With these cars delivered, the Santa Fe re-equipped the

Chicago–Galveston, Texas, Texas Chief
line. An additional 12 step-down coaches, numbered 538 to 549, and 12 convertible coaches, numbered 725 to 736, were ordered in November 1962 and delivered between December 1963 and April 1964.

Later years

The Budd company logo on the builder's plate in a Metro-North Railroad M3 railcar.
Tokyu Car Corporation
railcar.

Budd continued to build gallery passenger cars for

Superliner II
which ply the rails on many different routes today, though they were not a product of Budd.

Stainless steel Budd cars originally built for the

Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad
.

Budd-patented processes and designs were also used in

SNCF Class CC 40100, a small class of four-current six-axle high speed electric locomotives for Trans Europ Express service between Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam
and SNCB class 56 EMU.

In Japan, the

M-2 Cosmopolitan
, and the Arrow II/III/Silverliner IV MUs.

Budd also issued a licence to Australian manufacturer Commonwealth Engineering in Sydney in the late 1950s and 1989 for a variety of projects including the monocoque self steer V set double-decker interurban electric multiple units considered by many to be one of the world's most advanced double-decker designs. Budd's extensive research into the use of stainless steel carries on today in consulting businesses like Bay Rail.

Rail Diesel Car

In 1949, Budd introduced the

Pioneer construction methods first used in 1956 on some of the later commuter cars, such as the Milwaukee Road gallery cars that operated out of Chicago and electric multiple unit (EMU) high-speed cars that operated between Washington, D.C., and New York City
. The final few RDC cars were built by Canadian Car & Foundry under license from Budd.

Electric multiple units

A Budd M1 train on the Long Island Rail Road.

In the late 1950s, Budd built the prototype

Pioneer III. When re-designed and outfitted with electrical propulsion and end cabs as EMU coaches, six were purchased by the Pennsylvania Railroad for medium-distance use in its electrified territory. In 1963, they became known as Silverliner I cars when their use was supplemented by the Silverliner II, which used an improved Pioneer III body. They were placed into Philadelphia-area commuter rail service on the PRR and Reading Company
lines.

Budd was contracted in 1966 by the PRR and the U.S. Department of Commerce's Office of High-Speed Ground Transportation (prior to the establishment of USDOT) to build the original Metroliner multiple unit cars for luxury high-speed service on the northeast corridor. The 50 original cars were delivered in 1967–69. An additional 11 coaches were built for SEPTA but were not put into service until 1972 by Amtrak. The Metroliners have been either retired, rebuilt into coaches without the cabs, or de-powered and used as

cab cars
.

The Silverliner II had a top speed of 90 mph (140 km/h) but ran at up to 100 mph (160 km/h) when the PRR used them on its Philadelphia-Harrisburg service. The Metroliner EMU cars operated at 110 to 125 mph (201 km/h), but every car was tested to at least 160 mph (260 km/h), although breakdowns in the system led Amtrak to derate them to 90 mph (140 km/h). Since their retirement from regular service, Amtrak has used them as cab-coaches.[12]

Subway cars

In 1960, Budd manufactured the first stainless steel production subway cars for Philadelphia's Market–Frankford Line. 270 M-3 cars were jointly owned by the City of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Transportation Company, now SEPTA. Some rail enthusiasts nicknamed the cars "Almond Joys" because the four hump-shaped ventilators on the roof evoked the candy bar's shape.

There were 46 single units and 112 "married" pairs. The pairs were a "mixed marriage" because the odd-numbered car came with

Westinghouse
motors and equipment. One car in this fleet was air conditioned.

These cars were replaced with more modern, air-conditioned M-4 units from 1997 to 1999. Some cars were transferred to the

Pennsylvania trolley gauge (5' 2½").[13]

Industrial historian Jonathan Feldman has concluded that Budd, along with other "old-line" suppliers of subway cars, "lacked advanced systems-integration know-how and the skills required to manage complex electrical systems and electronics. Each of these firms had built railroad and subway cars, but modern subway cars became increasingly complicated. Like aircraft and automobiles, they became platforms for electronics."[14]

Transportation innovations

Aviation

The Budd BB-1 Pioneer in front of the Franklin Institute

In 1930, the company made its first foray into the

Enea Bossi joined the company as the head of stainless steel research to supervise the design and construction of a four-seat biplane amphibian aircraft, the Budd BB-1 Pioneer. It was the first built with a stainless steel structure.[15] This was the first aircraft for the Budd Company and made its first flight in 1931.[16] Built under Restricted License NR749,[17] its design utilized concepts developed for the Savoia-Marchetti S-56 and was powered by a single 210 horsepower (160 kW) Kinner C-5 five-cylinder radial engine.[18]

The stainless steel construction process for the BB-1 was patented in 1942.

Philadelphia.[17] The plane was memorialized in the children's book Spirited Philadelphia Adventure by Deirdre Cimino.[20][21]

During World War II, Budd designed and built the RB-1 Conestoga transport airplane for the United States Navy using stainless steel in many places instead of aluminum. Only 25 were built but after the war, 14 found their way to the fledgling Flying Tiger Line.

Automobiles

Henry Ford Museum

In 1962, Budd produced an operational

XR-400, for the American Motors Corporation
(AMC). It was designed to use AMC's existing chassis but ultimately did not enter production.

Ironically, Budd tried to sell a similar concept to Ford first. In 1961, Budd combined a 1957 Ford Thunderbird body with a 1961 Ford Falcon chassis to produce a sporty convertible. Ford chose to develop its entry into this segment, the Mustang, on its own Falcon chassis.[citation needed]

In 1965, Budd designed and manufactured a front disc brake system for some Chrysler, Imperial, and full-size Plymouth and Dodge automobiles from 1966 to 1968.

Divisions and subsidiaries

By the end of the 1950s, Budd had the following divisions and subsidiaries:[3]

  • Budd Lewyt Electronics, Inc. — special-purpose data processing systems, communications equipment, instrumentation, and environmental control products for electronics.
  • Tatnall Measuring Systems Division — physical testing equipment, metal film strain gages, standard and custom load cells, and a unique PhotoStress technique for direct strain measurements.
  • Continental-Diamond Fibre Corporation — special high-heat resistant materials for ablation applications, laminated and molded plastics, vulcanized fiber, and bonded mica in the form of sheets, rods, tubes, and tape.
  • Defense Division — advanced aerospace and atomic structures, coupling a broad research and engineering capability with extensive prototype and production facilities.
  • Nuclear Systems Division — gamma radiography equipment for non-destructive testing of airframes, providing beam, panoramic, and internal exposures in shop and field.
  • Electronic Controls Section — monautronic resistance welding controls for the aircraft industry.

Final years of railcar production

Baltimore Metro Subway
train
A Budd train built by Mafersa in São Paulo Metro

Budd built two series of "L" cars for the

Miami Metrorail cars (1983) were built by Budd and marketed as Universal Transit Vehicles; a similar set of cars (known as the Breda A650) were built by Breda for the Red and Purple lines of the Los Angeles Metro Rail between 1988 and 1997.[22] Stainless steel railcars were also built in Portugal by Sorefame
under license.

Metro-North and Connecticut Department of Transportation
) and was prematurely retired within 15 years. The fallout from the SPV-2000 furthered the company's decline.

In 1978, as Budd began to phase out its railcar business to concentrate on the automotive industry, it was acquired by Thyssen AG,[23] becoming its automotive division in Europe (Thyssen Automotive) and North America (Budd Thyssen).[24] The CTA 2600 series cars were finished in 1987 and were the last railcars to be built by Budd/Transit America.

In the mid-1980s, Budd reorganized its rail operations under the name Transit America. Nonetheless, on April 3, 1987, Budd ended all railcar production at its Red Lion plant in Philadelphia and sold its rail designs to Bombardier Transportation. Many of its engineers joined the staff of Louis T. Klauder and Associates, a local railway vehicles and systems engineering consulting firm.

Modern role in auto industry

When Thyssen merged with

Martinrea International Inc.[25] The plastics manufacturing and molding operations were sold to Continental Structural Plastics and the aluminum casing company Stahl was sold to Speyside Equity. Its last remaining operation was sold in 2012.[26]

Preservation

Numerous Budd railcars are preserved either by museums or private owners, many of which run them in charter service. Their quality of construction and elegant design have made them highly prized.[27]

Pennsylvania

The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania has a number of Budd-built cars in its collection in Strasburg: the 1937 observation car built for the Reading Company "Crusader", a Lehigh Valley Railroad rail diesel car of 1951, and Pennsylvania Railroad 860, a Metroliner snackbar-coach built in 1968.

The

Reading Railroad.[28]

The Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad has three operating RDCs, with road numbers 9166, 9167 and 9168.[29]

New York

A 1949 R11 (8013) and a 1964 R32 pair (3352-53) are in the New York Transit Museum fleet. Another R32 pair (3350-3351) is preserved by Railway Preservation Corp.

Indiana

The Indiana Transportation Museum maintains a fleet of fourteen closed-window Budd coaches built for the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe. Eight units are currently restored and are used in excursion service, including the Indiana State Fair Train. ITMZ also operates the Silver Salon as a head-end power car.

Illinois

The

CTA 2200 series cars.[30] Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry has housed the Pioneer Zephyr since its retirement in 1960.[31]

California

The

dome lounge car Silver Hostel, the diner car Silver Plate, and a Southern Pacific
Budd sleeping car.

Missouri

The National Museum of Transportation in St. Louis now owns former Zephyr diner Silver Spoon as well as the Budd-designed locomotive Silver Charger from the General Pershing Zephyr.

Massachusetts

Bedford Depot, situated at the northwestern end of the Minuteman Bikeway (formerly the Lexington Branch of the Boston & Maine railroad), has a restored Rail Diesel Car (#6211). The Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum in Adams also has a handful of RDCs, most notably the former B&M 6126.

Wisconsin

The Mark Twain Zephyr trainset is preserved at the Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad, undergoing restoration to operating condition.[32]

Portugal

The

Entroncamento, Portugal
, features a pair of Budd cars built in 1940.

Argentina

There are several Budd coaches, combines, and buffet-diner cars running in the Buenos Aires-Mar del Plata corridor. They are run as a luxury service during the summer months. The coaches and combines are in their original condition while the buffet-diner car had to be partially remodeled after a fire. They were originally purchased by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad but were sold before they could be used. Currently the train runs with one combine, three coaches, and a buffet-diner car, pulled by either an EMD GT22 or an English Electric locomotive.

Wind power

In 1939, the Budd company designed and fabricated the stainless steel skin for the blades of the Smith–Putnam wind turbine, the largest in the world for forty years.

Industrial facilities

Budd operated at multiple sites in the Philadelphia area. It had a brick factory in

Nicetown. An automobile parts factory on Hunting Park Avenue closed in 2002. The company moved its headquarters from Philadelphia to Troy, Michigan, in 1972. In 2002, the company operated 39 factories with approximately 12,000 employees in North America.[2]

See also

References

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. ^ a b Blanchard, Matthew P. (July 22, 2002). "Budd closing chips away at Phila.'s industrial past". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia. Retrieved February 1, 2015.
  3. ^ a b "In the service of flight". Aviation Week & Space Technology. 71 (27): 122. December 15, 1959. Retrieved March 30, 2017.
  4. ^ "Budd Co. Nears Ch. 11 Exit With Disclosure OK". Law360. US. May 9, 2016. Retrieved March 30, 2017.
  5. ^ a b page 106, George A Oliver, A History of Coachbuilding, Cassell, London, 1962
  6. G.N. Georgano Cars: Early and Vintage, 1886–1930. (London: Grange-Universal, 1985). Often credited as "first", others such as BSA
    were doing the same in this period.
  7. ^ "Budd Company History". Squarebirds.org. Retrieved July 14, 2013.
  8. ISBN 0801827434
    .
  9. ^ Morgan, D.P. (March 1953). "All About the RDC". Trains & Travel.
  10. ^ R-11 Datasheet
  11. ^ The New York Times, March 24, 2007
  12. ^ "Introduction". Budd-rdc.org. Archived from the original on June 24, 2013. Retrieved July 14, 2013.
  13. ^ "Budd Company". Mauspfeil.net. Archived from the original on July 14, 2013. Retrieved July 14, 2013.
  14. ^ "Jonathan Michael Feldman, "From Mass Transit to New Manufacturing," The American Prospect, March 22, 2009". March 23, 2009. Retrieved August 24, 2018.
  15. ^ "Photograph" (JPG). Airfields-freeman.com. Retrieved June 25, 2015.
  16. ^ www.waymaking.com https://web.archive.org/web/20090304012934/http://www.waymaking.com/waymarks/WM3851. Archived from the original on March 4, 2009. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  17. ^ a b Peter M. Bowers (October 1, 1999). "Italian amphib: "Savoia-Marchetti S-56 was tough plane to manage on the water"". General Aviation News. Archived from the original on July 13, 2007. Retrieved December 6, 2007.
  18. ^ "Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields: Pennsylvania – Northeastern Philadelphia area". Paul Freeman. Retrieved December 7, 2007.
  19. United States Patent Office
    . July 18, 1942. Retrieved February 18, 2008.
  20. ISBN 0-9626959-1-2
    .
  21. ISBN 0-7603-2051-9
    .
  22. ^ metrolibrarian (April 17, 2008), Metro Rail: The Future is Now 1985, archived from the original on December 13, 2021, retrieved February 4, 2018
  23. ^ "Internationalization and further vertical diversification – Bonn Republic – ThyssenKrupp AG". Thyssenkrupp.com. September 30, 2013. Archived from the original on June 26, 2015. Retrieved June 25, 2015.
  24. ^ "History of The Budd Company – FundingUniverse". Fundinguniverse.com. Retrieved June 25, 2015.
  25. ^ "ThyssenKrupp Budd to sell North American automotive body operations | Uncategorized content from". Americanmachinist.com. October 23, 2006. Archived from the original on April 1, 2012. Retrieved June 25, 2015.
  26. ^ Winegarner, Beth (April 2, 2014). "Bankrupt Budd Co. Says $390M Deal Protects 10K Retirees". Law360. US. Retrieved April 1, 2017.
  27. ^ "who used Budd bodies?". jalopyjournal.com. Retrieved July 14, 2013.
  28. ^ Bellefonte Historical Railroad Society. "Rolling Stock". Archived from the original on May 21, 2014. Retrieved October 9, 2013.
  29. ^ "Our Trains".
  30. ^ "IRM Roster of Equipment". IRM Roster of Equipment. Illinois Railway Museum. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  31. ^ "Pioneer Zephyr". museum of science+industry chicago. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  32. ^ "Mark Twain Zephyr". Mark Twain Zephyr.com. Retrieved July 12, 2022.

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