Re: [CBQ] [PassengerCarList] Budd car corrosion

["James Sandrin" <sandmantrains@gmail.com>]

Charlie:  The slab or panel sides on NP and GN cars were an overlay that gave visual continuity to the North Coast Limited and Empire Builder, matching the smooth sides of the Pullman and ACF cars in the consist.  Beneath the slab was the standard Budd corrugated  side panel.  Photos of damaged cars being rebuilt exposed these typical Budd sides.  The former NP dome sleeper that the Rio Grande purchased was stripped of the flat sides to expose the corrugated stainless steel, which was how the car appeared when it ran prior to UP acquisition.  I have not heard of or seen evidence of any problems with the overlay or the structural panels beneath the slabs.  Jim Sandrin  

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On Thu, 19 Nov 2020 at 10:52, Charlie Vlk <cvlk@comcast.net> wrote:

All-

Regarding the topic of the corrosion of Budd “smoothside” cars with Cor-Ten steel rusting, AFAIK the Budd slab or panel side cars on the NP and GN were painted stainless steel and they performed as well as any of the conventionally fluted cars in the Burlington fleet.  As a side note….Cor-Ten is supposed to rust…that is the main point of using it…the rust provides a protection barrier for anything made of it.  I don’t know if it and stainless reacts the same as the steels used in PS and ACF cars.

As a  sidebar to this thread…

I’ve seen comments here previously relating to Budd roofs leaking and being painted with sealant.

I’ve never seen a Burlington car of any vintage so treated and wondered why the Q didn’t have the problems with leaking roofs or did they deal with it in a different manner?  (This doesn’t count the WWII painting of (some??) roofs (likely those in Exposition Flyer service that would make it to the West Coast) to make them less conspicuous to enemy aircraft).

They had a number of the different types of Budd carbody construction (not all, but most of the “Phases”) and the only press they ever got was when the DZ were completely refurbished down to the frames was the remarkable pristine condition of the structure. 

I do recall seeing some silver color caulking on roofs of ex-Q dome cars but that was on cars in excursion service well after AMTRAK.

Anybody have any other input on the experience of water intrusion on Budd cars which would be the source of all evils under discussion?

Charlie Vlk

 

 

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