Word: budd
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Backbone of the Budd business is automotive, but that is relatively routine. The thing that stirs old Edward G. Budd and his veteran workmen in stainless steel is the sight of a gleaming new Diesel-powered (by G. M. C.'s Electro-Motive Corp.) streamline train rolling out of the yard to go into service on U. S. railroads. Last week, in the big, sprawling North Philadelphia plant, Budd workmen were finish ing up 50 streamline cars-for the Portuguese railway, Burlington, Santa Fe - and in the performance of streamliners already in service Budd could see the prospect...
That the streamliner has already given the roads a new hope is a feather for two caps. One feather is worn by Budd, the other by Pullman. When Pullman put out its first aluminum alloy Diesel streamliner in 1934, Budd followed in just two months with a sleek stainless steel job. These two manufacturers went right to work to show the railroads that business could be won by fast, comfortable trains with new-type accommodations for coach travelers...
Operating on U. S. tracks at year's end were some 85 streamliners, made by Pullman, Budd, American Car & Foundry and in railroad shops. A few were still being pulled by skirted, dressed-up steam locomotives, but the best records were being set by the Western roads that had gone whole hog and plumped for Diesel-electric power. Speeds had been stepped up enormously : Burlington's Fort Worth-Houston and Chicago-St. Paul trains were running on a 66.6-m. p. h. schedule; Union Pacific-Chicago & North Western's two City of Denver trains were averaging...
Well aware that streamliner speed would appeal to the railroads' customers, light-train builders like Budd and Pullman cannily concentrated their major sales appeal on coach-passenger comforts. To get average travelers out of automobiles and buses, they made roomier cars (50 seats instead of 80), softened upholstery, improved lighting, prettied washrooms and advocated stewardesses, an idea which the airlines had already exploited. The record of Santa Fe's El Capitans proved that this was good salesmanship: first full month of their operation (March 1938) they turned in a revenue of $38,000; four months later...
Most distinctive hallmark of the streamline-builders is the sleek, shiny gleam of Budd trains. Only Budds are made of stainless steel and only Budds are likely to be, as long as the Philadelphia plant keeps a tight hold on its "Shotweld" process for welding stainless sheets together. Invented by Budd's Chief Engineer Colonel Earl James Wilson Ragsdale, onetime professional Army officer, the "Shotweld" machine is a foolproof, delicately balanced electrical device that can be operated by unskilled labor. In less than the winking of an eye (1/20 of a second) it sends a stabbing electric current through...