Ready Made Toys first made a splash on the toy train scene with its strange-looking yet fun and affordable O gauge “Beep” diesel (CTT, May 2004). People like the revived postwar Beep design because the new model runs well, the graphics are state-of-the-art, and the price is low enough that you can, as the old bubblegum trading cards suggested, “Collect them all.”
Once again, Walter Matuch, owner of Ready Made Toys, has reached back into those stacks of wax to re-launch the career of another forgotten postwar-era star – the Marx RDC.
But just what is an RDC?
In the wake of World War II, the Budd Company sought to develop a product that would provide railroads with a cost-conscious means to provide passenger transportation to branch-lines or lines in sparsely populated areas, or a cost-effective means to offer modern commuter service.
In many respects, the Budd car was simply a passenger coach with a motor, engineer, and conductor.
Although the Budd car was a successful design, the expansion of America’s interstate highway system, spikes in the ownership of automobiles, and affordable air travel were already turning the economic tide against railroad passenger service in general. The Budd car was a great idea, just too late.
As a feature story about postwar toy train Budd cars in the November 2005 issue of CTT explained, Marx developed its RDC tooling in the mid-1950s. K-Line eventually acquired that tooling and used it to bring out its own RDCs (reviewed in the June 1992 issue).
The K-Line model itself was an improvement in the design. The firm offered the model with two motors, a reverse unit, and after punching out the cast-in windows, interior illumination.
On our test track, the K-Line RDC had an operating speed range of 32 to 116 scale mph. It had a drawbar pull of 12 ounces. A three-car set cost $190.
Fast-forward 14 years and you’ll discover Ready Made Toys’ version to be a very pleasant upgrade.
Measuring just a bit more than 11 inches in length (approximately 44 feet in O scale, compared to the prototype’s 85 feet), the Ready Made Toys model has a plastic shell, sheet-metal frame, plastic truck frames, and operating die-cast metal couplers.
K-Line’s original RDC used a typical postwar silhouette window insert to “populate” the cars. Ready Made Toys takes a different approach, one that looks much better. On both ends of the Budd car you’ll find an engineer figure at the throttle. The wall behind the figure has simulated windows and a door to the passenger compartment.
The interior of the car houses the mechanical and electronic components of the model, shielded by green-tinted windows. The visual effect is pleasing and hides the unit’s “guts.” Small touches like this are sure to create a loyal fan base for more RMT goodies.
Each end of the locomotive has four LEDs – two over the door and a marker on each corner. You’ll also find LED strobes topside, centered in line with the horn.
Add-on detail parts include handrails on each side door, grab irons on both ends, and three chains strung across each end door.
Painting and decoration of our sample model are first rate. Application of the coat of silver is flat and blemish free, and the Pennsylvania’s Tuscan red stripe applied just above the windows is a wonderful accent.
The lettering “Pennsylvania” and of “Altoona” is crisp. The car also features four small PRR keystone heralds on the sides and larger keystones on ends. No doubt, the other road names are as carefully crafted as the Pennsy model.
Nicknamed “Buddy,” this new model is available in Amtrak, Baltimore & Ohio, Boston & Maine, Chicago & North Western, Milwaukee Road, New Haven, New York Central, Pennsylvania, and Santa Fe road names and also in a Christmas paint scheme.
On the belly of the car are controls for direction and lighting.
A directional control switch allows you to choose normal, forward-neutral-reverse, or forward-only movement.
A light control on the undercarriage allows you to select from directional lighting (lights illuminate according to proper direction of travel), forward-only (front light only on), or rear-only (rear lights only on) illumination. This allows you to have proper lighting if running multiple units (ergo the front car has just its front lights on while the second car only has rear-end illumination).
On the test track
Our sample Budd car was a good performer. Its speed ranged from 7.8 to 104 scale mph. Though you probably wouldn’t find an RDC pulling a freight train, we measured drawbar pull at a respectable 1 pound, 2 ounces.
If you needed, you could probably slap a few express cars and a milk tanker or two, to the Buddy to get the goods to the TrainTown marketplace!
For a modestly priced model, this RDC comes with an impressive LED lighting suite. The red markers, white headlights, and yellow rooftop strobes are directional! The cab lights on either end remain illuminated and provide a modest amount of light for the passenger compartment.
To my surprise, the Buddy has four (yes, four) power pickup rollers, two on each truck, so electrical continuity was far better than I’d anticipated. After all, there are many larger and more expensive locomotives on the market sporting a mere two power pickups.
Though it didn’t bother me, when I ran the Budd cars in a totally quiet workshop the drivetrain made a bit more noise than some other locomotives I’ve recently tested. While this is not an earth-shattering sound, it is something that stands out if not masked by other background noise.
Ready Made Toys has once more taken some underused tooling, spruced it up, and priced it right. Now anyone can run a passenger train on his or her tabletop (or Christmas-tree) layout without having to wrestle four to seven coaches, diners, and baggage cars on and off the track. If your destination is inexpensive fun, let the “Buddy” car get you there.
Looks great + runs great + wonderful lighting system + reasonable price= FUN!
I have two units that I run together. After several hours of use I began to experience a problem with the electronic reversing not always operating properly together. A simple cleaning of the wheels and pick up rollers fixed the problem. These are wonderful little units and with a little bit of maintenance should run for many years to come.