Budd Company - Final Years of Vehicle Production

Final Years of Vehicle Production

Budd built two series of "L" cars for the Chicago Transit Authority, the 2200 series (1969–1970). and the 2600 series (1981–1987). They also built the New York City Subway R32 (1964–1965), the first PATCO Speedline cars (1968) and the Long Island Rail Road/Metro-North Railroad M-1/M-3 (1968–1973,1984–1986). The Baltimore Metro and Miami Metrorail cars (1983) were also built by Budd. Stainless steel rail cars were also built in Portugal by Sorefame, under licence from Budd.

Amtrak's 492 Amfleet I and 150 Amfleet II cars were built by Budd in 1975–78 and 1981–83. The Metroliner-based Amfleet body was recycled for usage in the SPV2000, a modernized diesel passenger car which was very problematic, saw only three buyers (Amtrak, Metro-North and Connecticut Department of Transportation), and saw premature retirements within 15 years. The fallout from the SPV2000 furthered the company's decline.

In 1978, as Budd began to phase out its railcar business to concentrate on the automotive industry, it was acquired by Thyssen AG, becoming its automotive division, Thyssen Automotive in Europe and Budd Thyssen Company in North America. The CTA 2600 series cars were finished in 1987, and were the last railcars to be built by Budd before its railcar business was shut down altogether that year.

In the mid-1980s, Budd reorganized its rail operations under the name Transit America, this name appearing on the builderplates of the Baltimore/Miami cars and Chicago's later order of 2600-series cars (but not the LIRR/MNCR M-3s). The new name did not save the company, and on April 3, 1987, Budd ended all railcar production at its Red Lion plant in Northeast Philadelphia and sold its rail designs to Bombardier Transportation. Many of its engineers joined the staff of the Philadelphia office of Louis T. Klauder and Associates, a local railway vehicles and systems engineering consulting firm.