Buda Inspection Cars on Union Pacific

The Buda Company was organized in 1881 and was then known as the Buda Iron Works, at Buda, Illinois, employing about fifty men and engaged in the manufacture of railway appliances and material such as railway, hand and push cars and patented steel wheels for these cars; also switch stands, baggage and warehouse trucks, railway castings and forgings, and architectural iron work.

During the later part of 1890 and '91 the company moved to Harvey, Ill., and became known as the Buda Foundry & Manufacturing Co., later purchasing the Paige Iron Works (1895) and erecting a large shop for turning out frogs, crossings and switches and all types of special track for both steam and electric railroads. In 1906 additional ground was secured adjacent to the plant and a large machine shop erected for the manufacture of jacks for all railroad purposes.

The next year (1907) additional buildings were secured and the company began manufacturing railroad gasoline motor cars, which were powered by a two-cylinder, opposed, air-cooled engine. In perfecting this engine the company became interested in the automotive industry and started the manufacture of the "Buda transmission" which was soon followed by building special automotive engines and in 1908 started building transmissions and gasoline engines for the Hudson Company, which were used in their first model, the "Original Hudson," as it was known at that time. In 1910 it was decided to wind up the transmission business and to concentrate upon the perfection and improvement of gasoline engines for automotive purposes. The firm then became known as the Buda Company.

In 1913 it was decided to discontinue the baggage and warehouse trucks and to substitute the Buda electric truck and tractor for warehouse and industrial use. Also during this year the Buda-Ross headlight generator for steam locomotives was brought out, giving the Buda Company a most complete line of railroad appliances and equipment as well as electric industrial trucks and automotive engines.

A large modern four-story structure of reinforced concrete and brick was completed in 1918 and it now houses the huge milling and grinding machines for finishing off crankcases and cylinder blocks as well as the many drilling, reaming and boring operations necessary in producing a heavy-duty automotive engine.
In normal times The Buda Company employs approximately 2400 men in the entire plant, about 1500 being engaged in the engine division alone, the other 900 being engaged in the other divisions.

The plant covers about twenty-five acres of ground and has a combined foundry capacity of 100 tons of poured metal a day.

The Buda Company has been under the same management since 1904, L. M. Miles, president, and F. E. Place, vice- president and general manager, having been connected with the firm for over 16 years. The personnel includes besides these men: Wm. P. Hunt, Jr., secretary and railroad sales manager; H. M. Sloan, treasurer; R. B. Fisher, general sales manager; S. Gordon Hyde, advertising manager; John P. Mahoney, sales manager; R, J, Broege, chief engineer, and E. D. Conant, general superintendent.

Well known in railroad circles as the builder of gang and inspection cars, Buda was also a major engine builder in the 1930s and some of its larger inspection cars doubtless were used in common carrier services, at least overseas.

Most of the cars built by Edwards were equipped with Buda engines, as were some of the conversion of railway coaches to motor cars carried out by Railway Motors Corp.

In 1946 Buda advertised the availability of its inspection cars in 8, 12, 16 and 20-passenger versions utilizing its own streamlined body and bus-type leather seats. None was known to have been sold to a U.S. carrier.

On a U.P. dispatcher's sheet Oct 19, 1956 it shows a piece of equipment identified as "B-10" operating from Green River to Ogden. The only notation is "fire inspector". It used a conductor-pilot but no engineer. It ran from Green River to Ogden in about 6 hours, about the same amount of time as a hot Forwarder train would take, so it was moving right along.

I would have expected to find critters like that on secondary mainlines, on branches, and in places like LaSalle. But it's amazing to me that cars like that were out running around on UP's high-speed, double track mainlines, especially on the busy Overland Route in the 1950s, mingling with the Streamliner fleets, etc. The dispatcher's sheet I reviewed shows car B-10 running from Green River to Ogden Oct 19, 1956, for example. The note says they were doing a "fire inspection", but I'm not sure if that would have been adjoining forest land, ROW ditches, ties, bridges, coal chutes? As I'd mentioned, those cars could run pretty fast, running GR to OG in 6 hours (including stops) just like the expedited freight trains did.

First mention of Buda “B-Cars” was found in The Union Pacific Magazine, September 1930, with a short article and photo of OWRR&N B-30. At that time, OSL also had one and Union Pacific had two. The article states they had seating for nine, and had four speeds ahead and reverse.

Overland medallions stayed with most until the end. These were inspection cars and some were used to pull a rail detector trailer. Originally they were passenger car green but were repainted armour yellow (seen here) when it was adopted for passenger equipment.

Jim Ehernberger offers that “B” numbering below 20 was on UP, the 20s were on OSL, the 30s on OWRR&N and the 40s were on the LA&SL. The Budas were being retired circa mid 1960s.