By Eric Berger

Thirty years after arriving in Texas to begin service for its third owner, the last Budd RDC-1 operating in the Trinity Railway Express fleet has reached its final stop, the Museum of the American Railroad in Frisco. Museum officials expressed tremendous gratitude to Dallas Area Rapid Transit for the donation of TRE 2001, which has been the only RDC still on the property for some time.

Built as Canadian Pacific 9070 in 1957, it became VIA 6131 in the late 1970s. In 1993, it was one of 13 RDCs acquired from VIA by DART. The transit agency wanted the self-propelled, bidirectional cars to equip TRE, a heavy rail transit option connecting Dallas and Fort Worth. The cars were completely stripped and rebuilt by Alstom in Montreal prior to entering service in 1997. The rebuilt cars had 92 seats with wheelchair access to four “mobility impaired areas.”  Two 300-hp diesel engines provided an operating speed of 60 mph and an 85 mph maximum. The RDCs served as the core of the TRE fleet for its first decade but were eventually replaced as locomotives and coaches were acquired to handle increasing ridership. The RDCs were retired in 2011 and sold to other operators, but TRE 2001 was retained awaiting the final disposition that turned out to be preservation by MAR.