# RDC consist procedures



## JackM (Jul 29, 2008)

This summer I plan to run my RDC-1 and RDC-3 together - once I lengthen the passenger station siding. Now I have some questions about what the prototype would do. I don't think I've ever seen two RDC running together, and if I did, I was too young to have paid attention. I've never seen any mention of this sort of thing, here or elsewhere. I think the New Haven does run a pair of RDCs but I'm a few hundred miles from CT.
 
For purposes of this discussion, let's call the _forward_ end of each RDC "end A", and the _trailing_ end of each "end B". Each end, whether A or B, has headlights, a pair of red marker lights and a horn. When my two RDCs are more-or-less permanently hooked up, the ends will be A1/B1-A2/B2.
 
1 - Headlights. When the train is moving forward, is the forward headlight (A2) of the trailing unit ON? When reversing, is the rear headlight (B1) of the lead unit ON? I would think that'd be pretty annoying to passengers and I should physically disconnect them.
2 - Ditch lights. Would it be appropriate to remove the red markers and install ditch lights in their place? (Back when I rode an RDC, ditches hadn't been invented yet.)
3 - Horns. When the engineer hits the horn button, would all four horns blow? Just the head end horn (A1) of the lead RDC and the rear-facing horn (B2) of the trailing RDC? Or just the forward-facing horns (A1 & A2) of both when moving forward, and the rear-facing horns (B1 &B2) when moving in reverse? (The stereo feature of those Titan sound cards would come in real handy here.)
4 - Presuming the conductor might want to travel from one RDC to the other, shouldn't there be those ....(senior moment)....bellows kind of things between the RDCs? Does anyone make them in G? Origami was never my strong suit.
 
Thank you for sharing your knowledge. The neighbors will be impressed that the CCRR's commuter business has increased so much we had to add another RDC.
 
JackM


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## Dave Meashey (Jan 2, 2008)

Jack;

This may not help a lot, but here is what I remember of the Reading RR's RDC operations between Philadelphia and Tamaqua, Pennsylvania. The Reading ran their RDCs in two-car sets, and they were MUed so that no turning was required. As I remember, only the "forward" cab displayed the headlight, and only the "rear" cab displayed the markers. This may require some creative wiring for our large scale models. Also, there was no "gangway" between the two units. Passengers had to stay on the unit they had boarded. The time frame was 1970 to 1977, so that predates ditch lights. 

The really odd feature did not affect the appearance of the equipment. It was operational. The Reading ran one two-car set from Tamaqua, and the other two-car set from Philadelphia. Both sets met "face-to-face" at the passenger station in Reading. Passengers continuing beyond Reading in either direction were obliged to change trains. I saw this happen in 1976, but the station seemed more like it was in a time warp dating back to 1956!

Best,
David Meashey


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

Before the 1980's, and the death of cabooses, trains didnt have any "lit" lights at the rear, during the day..
and it appears it was same for RDC's, on the B&M anyway..no lights at the rear at all, in daylight:


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

Multiple Units:


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## Dick413 (Jan 7, 2008)

Hello Jack 
on #1 no to all 
#2 i have only seen 1 rdc with ditch lights 
 

#3 just front horn but good to hear from all. 
# 4 no bellows 
 

and RDC 3 runs first 

Dick


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## JackM (Jul 29, 2008)

Dave, Scot, Dick - 

Thanks for the info, fotos and.....a six-unit RDC train??? That boggles my mind. The Reading, PA, transfer on the Reading RR borders on funny. Could've been a great Marx Bros. movie. 

I had wondered whether passengers might be kept in one car or another. But, unless the Conductor locked the door behind him when he went from car to car, B&M would've had six Conductors on that six unit train. Almost seems they're getting to the point where it becomes more profitable (less of a drain) to run a real passenger train instead of six RDCs. On the other hand, if that was the 70s, I guess we took orders like well-behaved canines: "Sit", Stay". 

Thanks. 

JackM


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## Dick413 (Jan 7, 2008)

Jack 
That six unit was a special out of boston to north conway not normal. that main road it crossed was rt. 16 NH going to north conway. tracks have been pulled now. if you look you see the white flags some time in 60's i thank 
Dick


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## du-bousquetaire (Feb 14, 2011)

Way back in the 70s I used to ride them from North Station to Lincoln Mass on the Fitchburg division. They could be MU ed together and often were so were the NH ones. I was modeling the B&M then in HO. One day I descided to go do a photo saffarri at the big Boston yards just on the other side of the lift bridges out of North station. I got around for about a nice half hour seeing some snow plows and things when I got cought up by a railroad police officer. After I explained I was a railfan, he explained that a nut had climbed aboard a 12 car set of Buddliners at North station and set them all in full backwards and jumped off. The towerman had thought of lifting the bridges, but didn't because of the incrdible damage that would have done. Instead he sent them on the northbound main towards Portland, but turned the switch in the wye to send them into the engine terminal. They landed in the turntable pit! There was milions of dollars of dammage (but still a Heck of a lot cheaper than rebuilding one of those lift bridges.) So he told me I had a half hour to get off the property because this just wasn't the day... And that if he found me there after that half an hour, he would take me to the station. He was a nice guy. The thing had just hapened on the same day! 
Once I remember taking one to Marblehead with a friend who had invited me to his parents for the week end. We where on the Revere line I think all of a sudden we saw this switch stand laying across the tracks. The engeneer slamed on the emergency but we still ran over that swithstand it ripped out the brake gear, we were pretty lucky it didnt derail the Buddliner and we were stuck for about an hour when another Budd car came up to us that had brakes and we slowly, crawled out to Marblehead with about a couple of hours late arrival. Somebody out there didn't like the old B&M.


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## on30gn15 (May 23, 2009)

RDC book worth reading, _RDC, The Budd Rail Diesel Car_, by Donald Duke and Edmund Keilty, c.1990, Golden West Books, 278pp.
While it won't specifically answer detailed questions about who used what lights when, it does cover the design, testing, selling, use, and disposition, of RDC by various operators.
There are plenty of photos, and they can answer some questions.
Book even briefly covers NYC's M-497 jet test, and, the SPV-2000.
Pages 86 and 87 have floor plans for RDC-1 through RDC-4, which was about 10 feet shorter than the other 3 types.

Interesting photo page 78 of Long Island RR, which had two RDC, a -1 and a -2, loading passengers from a high platform through the -2's baggage door.

Are several photos of 3 or 4 RDC m.u.'d together, may be comments in text about how often that was done. Page 206 has photo of 12 m.u.'d together on their way to Camden NJ for the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Line.

Book also comments that towing unpowered stock, boxcars, coaches, and such, voided the warranty.


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## JackM (Jul 29, 2008)

I must buy myself that for Xmas!

JackM


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## s-4 (Jan 2, 2008)

This is a pretty cool video of the B&M with multiple lashups. I think this is a mix of regular B&M commuter trains and then the ski train specials to N. Conway (BTW, that line is still largely in tact with only 18 mi out of service, upon which most of it is still in place and cleared). 

The RDCs were used in Boston North Station for years and years as their primary commuter train solution. I'm not sure how it worked with conductors/trainmen... It seems like they have a trainman for each car today on the MBTA, so perhaps they did back then too? ...I don't really know how you would do it otherwise with the frequency of station stops nearing Boston.


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## on30gn15 (May 23, 2009)

Have seen a couple published HO scale track plans for B&M suburban runs for either steam or RDC.
Those RDC do make a spiffy looking train. And that long consist with white extra flags was interesting.


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## du-bousquetaire (Feb 14, 2011)

If I remember correctly there used to be one conductor per train on the B&M, they could go from one car to the other with the end doors and probably fitted them with safety chains on the sides of the gangway. They used conductors keys to open the doors so that regular passengers could not go from car to car except in station stops by getting off and back on again. I don't exactly remember.
But I remember the conductors, they wrere friendly and knew their jobs well: What was a huge surprise for this European young man at the time (around 1971-'73) was that they could keep track of every passenger on the train. Once they controlled your ticket, they never asked you again although they kept going through the train after just about every station. Their secret was that they would slip your ticket in a slot on top of the seat backs. If they had controled it. And that way, at a glance, they could see who had just got on board at the last station. It was very professional.


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## Doug C (Jan 14, 2008)

A couple vids that popped up on google.ca ; 

a oldie that has some MU clips ;






in the 1990s MU 9 min.(ish) mark ;




(rdc3 at 12:50 MU with a conversion ? )


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## on30gn15 (May 23, 2009)

Doug C said:


> (rdc3 at 12:50 MU with a conversion ? )


 It sure does look like someone did a spot of 1:1 scale kitbashing and turned a 3 in to a 1. The way light is reflecting from side here at 12:39 really shows it up https://youtu.be/bXMdxRMB5t4?t=12m39s


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