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The Philadelphia Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society Established in 1936

Railfan Pictures of the Week - 04/03/2005

Budd Company Red Lion Plant Philadelphia PA April 3 1987

On April 3 1987, the employees of the Budd Company Red Lion Plant in Northeast Philadelphia said goodbye to the last railcar assembled at the plant. CTA 3200 was the last of 600 cars built for the Chicago El during the 1980's. In 1969-1970 Budd built 150 cars for the Chicago Transit Authority (2200 series), and after going to Boeing-Vertol for another 200 cars in 1976-1978 for the 2400 series, CTA returned to Budd for the 2600 series. These were the last CTA cars originally built for two person operation. After Budd left the business, Morris-Knudsen built another 250 plus cars in 1992-1994, all with full width cabs for one person operation.

Most photographs taken of rail-related equipment are lacking in one area: the people responsible for building and running the equipment. An earlier generation of Budd Company workers gave us the original Zephyrs, the Pennsylvania Railroad 1952 Congressional/Senator cars and the Keystone tubular train, the original Silverliners for the PRR as well as Silverliner II's for PRR and RDG, PRR/PC Metroliners, and the Rail Diesel Car or RDC, as well as many other cars (complete roster here). These are some of the people who built transit cars for Chicago, New York, Maryland and Miami as well as Amfleet II cars for Amtrak in the 1980's until the plant closed. My father is third from the left.

All pictures c. 2005 Collection of John P. Almeida

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Website created June 12, 2002

Last Updated April 3, 2005