BNSF has restored these former Santa Fe cars for ‘snow coach’ duty.
BNSF Railway
WHITEFISH, Mont. — BNSF Railway has restored two former Santa Fe hi-level coaches and two baggage cars for service as “snow coaches” this winter.
BNSF officials tell Trains News Wire that the coaches will be used to move crews when regular crew vans are unable to travel due to extreme weather conditions. In the past, the railroad has moved crews on locomotives, but spokeswoman Maia LaSalle says the new cars can hold more people and gives them more space.
“The new snow coaches are more comfortable and efficient transportation for crews in impacted areas,” she says.
The cars were recently rebuilt at BNSF’s Topeka, Kan., shops and will soon be moved north. Officials say they will primarily be used on the Montana and Northwest Divisions.
The problem is not in who owns or could potentially manufacture Budd cars(if even possible), the problem is in duplicating the shot welding process they developed for said manufacture. As we’ve seen with both Nippon Sharyu and CAF, it has been almost impossible for anyone to duplicate the method that Budd used, why, I don’t have that answer.
The old drawings could not just be used as safety standards have changed.
GEORGE PINS – Happy day, someone stands up for smooth-riding Pullman Standard passenger cars. Kind of like me buying smooth-riding Chrysler Corporation automobiles though they were no good. Smooth riding with that torsion bar suspension but they had nothing else going for them.
Sorry GEORGE we’re both showing our age. My family’s ride in the Budd dome Thanksgiving weekend (Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum) did greatly impress the next generations but I’m quite sure none but me ever heard the word “Budd”.
Budd also had a significant auto parts plant at Conner and Mack in Detroit, near the ancient and long gone Chrysler East Jefferson Assembly. For whatever reason, lost in the fog of decades, I once was inside the plant. I don’t even remember what the plant built. Bumpers? Hood and trunk lids? Auto glass? Can’t tell you.
I believe the baggage cars were purchased to make power cars for the coaches.
Curt Warfel: Crews will get to on duty points anyway they can, snowmobile, snowshoe etc. Once at the on duty point locomotives and these new cars can deliver and relive crews to trains in sidings up and down the line.
I was on the Empire Builder westbound a couple of winters ago, all the local roads were closed near Whitefish, Montana, Amtrak was pressed into service swapping crews out. I found my train ride turned into a taxi service as the Empire Builder stopped at isolated sidings to swap crews out.
This is a good argument to continue these long distant trains for ordinary people rather than trying to drive hundreds of miles on heavily snowed roads. See the opening scenes of movie “Fargo” to get an idea of the challenges of winter in the Northern part of USA.
Curt Warfel: Weather is different in valley bottoms(where crews live) and the high mountain passes
Charles,
The Santa Fe El Capitan/Super Chief ride from Chicago to Pamona? and back in Dec. 1967 is still one of my best memories. On the return trip they pulled the old F units and put the new FP45’s on point for the run from New Mexico to Chicago. What a blast!!!
Charles Landey – Let’s not get into a sissing contest over this, but back in the day I was certain I could tell a Budd sleeper from a Pullman product with my eyes closed – Pullman rode quieter and vibrated less. Yes, I know about cor-ten and corrosion.
Penelope – Correct. Bombardier bought Pullam-Standard designs. Budd designs went away.
The hilevels were and still are wonderful. Budd built the finest cars.
Sometimes an old way is still the best way!
There was a time when old passenger cars relegated to maintenance-of-way were wood-sided and later heavyweight cars. Now the last passenger cars built during the Streamliner Era are joining the ranks.
Topeka Shops still knows how to work on El Cap cars. What a surprise.
@AnnaHarding, the assets of Pullman-Standard were actually acquired by Bombardier.
Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia detailing the disposition of the Budd Company:
[The] Budd Company became part of Budd Thyssen in 1978 and in 1999 a part of ThyssenKrupp Budd. Body and chassis operations were sold to Martinrea International in 2006. No longer an operating company, Budd filed for bankruptcy in 2014. It currently exists to provide benefits to its retirees.
As innovative and successful as the Budd Company was, it could not survive the diminished market for railway passenger cars. The resurgence of rail travel came too late for Budd and its domestic competitors Pullman-Standard, American Car & Foundry, St Louis Car Works et al.
Didn’t many of the El Capitan cars have their own diesel generated equipment for HVAC?
Also a train may be stopped out on the road needing a crew. Away from a terminal.
Idle thought but; if the roads are so bad regular crew vans are unable to travel; how are crew members going to safely drive to their on duty location?
JOHNNY HOFFMAN posts (below) “Budd built the finest cars”. Well, Johnny, I can’t imagine any other way of seeing it. Comparing a Budd car of its era to anyone else is a slam dunk. Two weeks ago on a tourist railroad we rode a Budd dome car built for the Northern Pacific. Amazing.
As I posted a week ago the Budd dome car is obsolete and maintenance intensive and expensive. As was the competition. The difference is, this car is still around while the competition is not.
As for the Santa Fe Hi-Levels, well, in my opinion, it’s God first, family second, the Santa Fe El Capitan third, all else comes further down the list.
Saw a question from General discussion. How are these cars going to be heated? Certainly not from a HEP loco ?
I pointed out in another thread that Bombardier (which bought Budd) still has all the production drawing in their archive. They could make more of these if sufficiently motivated.
Job out a rebuild of the much loved and missed Pacific Viewliner parlours.