This self propelled diesel passenger rail car had a carrying capacity of 90 passengers. They were built by the Budd Company in Philadelphia between the years of 1949–1962. A total of 398 were built. The car features a stainless steel body, 85 feet in length, an air braking system and a hydraulic torque converter transmission. It was powered by twin GM 110 diesel engines manufactured by Detroit Diesel which was a subsidiary of General Motors. The cars were primarily adopted for passenger service in rural areas with low traffic density or in short-haul commuter service, and were less expensive to operate in this context than a traditional locomotive-drawn train. The Lehigh Valley Railroad owned two of these RDC-1 cars (#s 40 and 41).
More information on the Budd RDC-1 can be found on www.budd-rdc.org/.
Taken back on Saturday 8-22-2009 at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, Strasburg, PA.
For more information on the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, visit their web site at www.rrmuseumpa.org/index.shtml.
I shot this as seven bracketed RAW frames and then combined them into an HDR with Photomatix Pro and finally, tone mapped that image to create the final product.
