| Posted by beano on March 21, 2017 | |
Those two dames seem to be saying to each other good riddance don't bother coming back to soon as you ate up all the groceries and stole the last three pieces of pizza. What a wonderful photo here. I have never seen a RDC with a face like that.
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Nice catch! Do they have cabs on the other side of the rail car?
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What is up with the bar on the windows.
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Answering questions above... (1) The "Roger Williams" set was part of a 1950s NH experimental program that also involved a lightweight trainset from Pullman-Standard and and early Talgo. The other two experimentals were quickly retired due to multiple mechanical problems. Roger lasted a year or so in Boston-New York service but it was oddball equipment and when railroad management changed it joined the NH's large fleet of standard RDCs in commuter service. (2) The two cars seen here (NH/PC 140-141, which became Amtrak 27-28), had a cab at one end and a blind end. In the original trainset these were the end units coupled with four intermediate coaches. (3) The grates were for crew protection from debris-throwing vandals in the days before locomotives had today's high strength windshields. A number of NH and later PC/Amtrak/MBTA locomotives sported them in the late 1960s/1970s.
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The window bars were there to protect the crew from thrown/dropped projectiles; these became common in the late sixties and early seventies, at least in the Boston Metro-West area where I grew up. I don't see them much anymore, however. I'm guessing that the glass used today is much more shatter resistant than it was back then...
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| Posted by FSWood on March 22, 2017 | |
As to why they didn't work, some info is on page 81 of a 1990 book titled RDC by Donald Duke and Edmund Keilty, "Right from the beginning the passengers protested to New Haven officials about the spartan appointments on the train." Then comment is made about assumptions that passengers would sacrifice comfort for speed. Text goes on to say that on a Boston to New York route Roger Williams train often operated only half full while conventional train Merchants Limited operated consistently close to full.
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| Posted by xBNSFer on March 23, 2017 | |
Wonder how long after this it was that one of the two main tracks got ripped up to "save" money, which is now being spent in multiples, I'm sure, to re-install the second main.
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Thinking long term, the New Haven - Springfield "Shuttle" was probably the route for which these units were best suited. By then, though, they were mechanically "ageing." Unlike most RDCs, the intermediate cars from this set had NO cabs on either end. MARC (Maryland) had one of the intermediate cars which they ran between standard RDCs until they were retired.
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Nice job, Tom!
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