scale Budd Cars?

Absolutely.

I'll pull my plastic right now !

Scrapy

I would have bought the 3rd Rail one, but it was only an RDC-1, and I wanted an

RDC-3...I will take a conventional one, thanks...just one and that one...I'm picky...

no "shorties", either, plenty of those out there....

The 3rd Rail Budd RDCs were gorgeous, but at full scale ~80', too long for most home layouts with less than 72" diameter curves.  I would very much like to see MTH or Lionel do 18" versions.  Until then, I am happy with my pair of Railking RDCs.

What kind of features would Legacy or PS3 have to offer a passenger car?  If you're talking doors that open or smoke that comes out of the kitchen exhaust stack, no thanks.

Maybe there is some confusion about what a scale Budd car is?  To me, it is a 21" extrusion roughly matching the contours of cars Lionel made in the 1950s, and not an RDC or one of those smaller Flying Yankees.  K-Line and 3rd Rail have made very good scale Budd cars, and Mac Shops and Ed Alexander made really good kits.  They are all out there, for relatively cheap.

Hi Bob,

The "trolley mode" station stop capabilities of PS2 and 3 are a pretty "killer app" for RDC's.

The 3rd-Rail RDC's are a beautiful model.  We have nine sets of them on NWTL.  The bodies are beautifully done with an excellent nickle plated finish.  It's a little more yellow than stainless steel, but it looks a lot better than silver paint.  The bodies are quite heavy and the manufacturer did a good job specing the truck spring.  When set on the track the springs compress about 1/3 of their total travel.  The fatal flaw of the 3rd-Rail RDC's is the drive.  They use powered trucks with a small motor driving worm gear boxes on each axle.  That provides plenty of power to move the car and it's coupled dummy, but the gear boxes have no seals.  After running a few scale miles the gear boxes heat up, the grease inside thins, and it wicks out the axles and onto the wheels.  They really can't stand up to regular operation.

I buy a set but they must be scale.

I have a few of the 3RD Rail RDC cars and they are great runners and well built.

Thanks guys.  Not being a trolley type I only knew of Budd passenger cars.

I have the RMT, Lionel and MTH RDC's. Nothing compares to the beauty of the 3rd Rail cars. If you pockets are that deep go for them.

Al W.

No deep pockets here Al.  I do not smoke, gamble, do drugs and have 8-10 beers a year.  I was also smart enough to not get married a second time.  I am old.  House and two Florida Condos are paid for.  Nothing else left for me to spend my money on but trains.  I try to buy the right trains as we all know the train market has a lot of junk.

They are beautiful Marty, nicest I've ever seen. We had them here in Australia, they used to run down our beautiful south coast along side the ocean, it was a wonderful trip. If something as nice as these was released again, I'd buy them for sure.

Dave, Mike is a no go and I have asked Scott several times if he will run them again.  Time will tell.  When I got out of the Navy, I rode them to get into Boston.  I remember them to be smooth.

At least with TMCC/L or DCS, you can run a lashup MU set of cars, then at a junction you can break down the train for various destinations.  Or do the reverse

Missed out on the first offering. Would really like to see a scale-sized run of them done again. Would probably opt for scale-wheeled this go-round and make mods to get them to go both ways.

When I first saw these with truck mounted motors, I passed.  A friend ran one on my layout and I was hooked.  They run fantastic.  Very smooth and powerful.

I wish I had the $$ back then. the AMTRAK models were striking with their Red/Blue/White ends.

http://www.bcoolidge.com/Amtra...n-Station_4_74_w.jpg

Own a PRSL powered and unpowered RDC-1 pair from 3rd Rail. Gorgeous pieces! (as Marty has shown above). The low profile power truck motors have been smooth and dependable. A distinct virtue of the motor arrangment used in the 3rd Rail scale versions is that one has a proper flat floor throughout the length of the units permitting a full length interior without any obstructions which strongly contributes to the overall appearance of the model (A similar arrangement is used in the 3rd Rail Electroliners and the twin motors have been fine for me in my Red Arrow version).

If one is searching of the 3rd Rail RDC's in the secondary market, be aware that the satin coating on the nickel plating can be a bit touchy. Other than that one caution, the 3rd Rails make everything else look like silver painted lunch boxes.

Bob Bubeck

I have one complaint about the detail on the GGD RDCs.  Scott forgot to include the exhaust stacks in the roof top blister.  Instead there are just these blank panels where the stacks go.

Perhaps Scott would do the Phase 2 version of the RDC?  This way he could do the railroads he didn't do on the first run.

Stuart

Hello Marty, did Mike Wolf say he was not going to make scale RDC cars? Very curious about that, if he is not that would be disappointing.

John

I'm not planning on buying much more motive power, but I would definately be interested in a set of RDC's. 

My only issue would be since I model both the Reading and th B&O, which line would I buy?

Jim

Ah, OK. Thanks, Stuart.

Bob Bubeck

I just dug out of a box a clear plastic molding of an RDC-1, with an included metal

frame.  I used to see these occasionally and thought I would find another, splice

them, and get my scale length RDC-3. Haven't seen others lately, but notice this

has no stacks but two round radiator grilles on the dome in the casting.  The windows are not punched out, it is all one piece clear plastic, and I think this is an AMT/KMT molding?

Somebody on here was interested in AMTRAK.  In some box, I didn't find, I have a pair

of AMT/KMT F units that someone had had, looks professional, repainted for AMTRAK.

I am staying steam only, so I have no use for these F units. (nor for the RDC-3, except it has been a challenge to get)