Ex-B&M Boise Budd RDCs in Croton East Yd (Photos on 7/7/

I visited MNCR's Croton East Yard this evening and discovered four converted RDC cars of Boston and Maine heritage, presumably in position to get scrapped. Now, doing a little searching on the internet, I found that Metro North had more converted RDCs in addition to these four at Croton. The numbers of the cars at Croton East were 1401, 1402, 1405, 1416. How many additional cars did MNCR operate of B&M heritage and what is happening with the four in Croton? Does Metro North still own these cars or did they sell them to the scrapper? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Here are some photographs from tonight:















Thanks,
Joe

Looks like Joe went tresspassing, The Ex VRE cars are not being scraopped, their in storage,They were bought for upper Harlem shguttle seervice but taken out of service after blizzard of 1996.
At one point(pre 1992) MNCR had like 17 or so of these cars leased from VRE, they went back to VRE, sold to Caltrans and later to Grand Canyon Railway.

Some of these cars made it to the short-lived VTR Champlain Flyer commuter service around Burlington, VT until 2004...

I have heard that these cars were restricted from third rail territory(with passengers), because they would hit the third rail. Was this true, and why would Metro North retain these 4 cars, and send the rest back to VRE?

Kurt wrote:I have heard that these cars were restricted from third rail territory(with passengers), because they would hit the third rail. Was this true, and why would Metro North retain these 4 cars, and send the rest back to VRE?

I'd find it hard to believe a train would be designed in such a way that it would frequently and accidentally hit the third rail. (Watch someone prove me wrong now.)

If anything, I'd guess these cars would be restricted from third rail territory simply because they can't run on electricity. They are diesel only, and thus prohibited from the Park Avenue tunnel into GCT. There really aren't many uses (currently) for a train that doesn't go all the way to GCT... except for NH branch service, or as Dutch mentioned, the off-peak Upper Harlem Line shuttle.

As far as these particular cars are concerned, it appears that they are most likely junk and will be heading to the scrapper since it appears that these cars have been here a while because the kids have done their work on them.

Kurt wrote:I have heard that these cars were restricted from third rail territory(with passengers), because they would hit the third rail. Was this true, and why would Metro North retain these 4 cars, and send the rest back to VRE?

They were used on non-electrified upper harlem, the restriction was put on them after the big blizzard.
MNCR desided to use them on snow trains, but since budd cars like these VRE's, do not have air suspention the cars got overloaded.
They ran with near 180 people per car plus 2 feet of snow on roof towards GCT and in curves took down the third rail because they ran so low with all that weight.
The cars MNCR has were not part of the VRE lease cars, but were 4 cars bought that had never run for VRE, the cars were rebuilt at North White Plains shop.

I'd find it hard to believe a train would be designed in such a way that it would frequently and accidentally hit the third rail. (Watch someone prove me wrong now.)

What do you find hard to believe? Simply the cars were not designed for a specific railroad but more general applications where 3rd Rail was not a factor. In fact, LIRR had some too. And NYC's own RDC's didn't have such a problem. The bigger, more universal problem, was their inability to trip signal and crossing protection devices. After a fatal rear end crash at Palmer, MA, restrictions were placed and alterations made. Two stops were required at all stations or at stop signals to insure not stopping on sand and thus disable the shunt (this became a rule on all railroads). Later a shunt bar or circuit was actually installed on the cars to be sure of it tripping signals.

These cars ran on the Upper Harlem Shuttle until at least February of 1999. That's the last time I saw them in service. By July of 1999 they were off the shuttle.

This is how they looked in Dover Plains, 1996 (pay no mind to the "Wassaic" in the url):

http://public.fotki.com/vingong/old_rai ... assaic_ny/

A year before in MTA and VRE livery:

http://public.fotki.com/vingong/old_rai ... nv315.html

Back in the 80's on a Friday the day after Christmas, I remember riding up from GCT to then Brewster North just to ride the Budds to Dover Plains. There were so many people that all the railfans had to crowed into the cab vestibule with the engineer. It was great!

I barilly knew Metro-North had Budd cars until like last year. Nice pics Joe! lirr415

Calling a boisi Budd a budd car is like calling a neuterd dog a He.
These were days MNCR ran Buds.

DutchRailnut wrote:Calling a boisi Budd a budd car is like calling a neuterd dog a He.
These were days MNCR ran Buds.

Strange how there's only one car sitting there. Why is that?

henry6 wrote:What do you find hard to believe? Simply the cars were not designed for a specific railroad but more general applications where 3rd Rail was not a factor.

I find it hard to believe that a railroad car would be hitting a third rail when the third rail is a little outside the usual dimensions of a train.

I don't think it's too unreasonable to expect trains to not hit third rails, considering we have a standard gauge widely in use across the country. If Amtrak's cars and countless types of freight cars (which are also "not designed for a specific railroad") can be used on the very same Metro-North tracks without any problem, I think it's valid to question why these particular cars had issues. But since they're retired, it's a moot point.