Photos and video show Budd Rail Diesel Car #121 (Sunset Models) on the O-72 outer loop of my 12’-by-8’ layout and Fairbanks Morse CPA-24-5 #792 (Lionel) on the O-54 middle loop. The Sunset RDC model is scale-size - 21 inches in length - equivalent to 84 feet full scale.
By mid-1953, 40 Budd RDCs, including #121 – an RDC-2 with baggage and passenger compartments, were in local passenger service on the New Haven. Eventually, the Boston & Maine Railroad became the largest user of RDCs, with the New Haven in second place. On the New Haven, RDCs were known as “Shoreliners” and many remained in service until the railroad was merged into Penn Central in 1969.
#792 was acquired by the New Haven in 1952 and was one of ten class DER-4 locomotives that hauled heavy passenger trains on the Shore Line (New Haven to Boston) and the Springfield Line (New Haven to Hartford, CT and Springfield, MA). They had a 12-cylinder opposed-piston engine with 2,400 horsepower and were retired by 1961 due to the high cost of overhaul on an engine with 24 pistons and 2 crankshafts.
MELGAR