23 Facts About Budd Company

Budd Company was a 20th-century metal fabricator, a major supplier of body components to the automobile industry, and a manufacturer of stainless steel passenger rail cars, airframes, missile and space vehicles, and various defense products.

Budd Company became part of Budd Thyssen in 1978, and in 1999 a part of ThyssenKrupp Budd.

Budd Company jointly founded, and from 1926 to 1936, held an interest in The Pressed Steel Company of Great Britain Limited, which built bodies for Morris Motors and others, and Ambi-Budd, which supplied Adler, Audi, BMW, NAG and Wanderer; and earned royalties from Bliss .

The Budd Company created the first "safety" two-piece truck wheel, used extensively in World War II, and built truck cargo bodies for the US military.

Budd Company built thousands of streamlined lightweight stainless steel passenger cars for new trains in the US in the 1930s through the 1980s.

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In 1949, Budd Company built ten prototype stainless steel R11 subway cars for the New York Board of Transportation; these were intended for the Second Avenue Subway.

Budd Company proposed coaches that were taller than the typical lightweight passenger car while keeping the streamlined car's length of 85 feet but with double the capacity of cars.

Budd Company continued to build gallery passenger cars for Chicago-area commuter service on the Burlington Route, Rock Island, and Milwaukee Road lines during the 1960s and 1970s; most of these cars are still in service on today's Metra routes.

Budd Company-patented processes and designs were used in Brazil, France, and Belgium after World War II to construct SNCF electric-powered multiple-unit cars, push-pull suburban trainsets, Wagons-Lits [CIWL] sleeping cars and even SNCF Class CC 40100, a small class of four-current six-axle high speed electric locomotives for Trans Europ Express service between Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam and SNCB class 56 EMU.

Mafersa continued to manufacture cars based on Budd Company designs, building 38 for Virginia Railway Express between 1990 and 1992, some now at Shore Line East.

Budd Company issued a licence to Australian manufacturer Commonwealth Engineering in Sydney in the late 1950s and 1989 for a variety of projects including the monocoque self steer V set double-decker interurban electric multiple units considered by many to be one of the world's most advanced double-decker designs.

In 1949, Budd Company introduced the Rail Diesel Car, a stainless steel self-propelled "train in one car" which expanded rail service on lightly populated railway lines and provided an adaptable car for suburban service.

In 1960, Budd Company manufactured the first stainless steel production subway cars for Philadelphia's Market-Frankford Line.

In 1962, Budd Company produced an operational concept car, the XR-400, for the American Motors Corporation .

In 1961, Budd Company combined a 1957 Ford Thunderbird body with a 1961 Ford Falcon chassis to produce a sporty convertible.

In 1965, Budd Company designed and manufactured a front disc brake system for some Chrysler, Imperial, and full-size Plymouth and Dodge automobiles from 1966 to 1968.

Budd Company built two series of "L" cars for the Chicago Transit Authority, the 2200 series .

The Baltimore Metro and Miami Metrorail cars were built by Budd Company and marketed as Universal Transit Vehicles; a similar set of cars were built by Breda for the Red and Purple lines of the Los Angeles Metro Rail between 1988 and 1997.

Nonetheless, on April 3,1987, Budd Company ended all railcar production at its Red Lion plant in Philadelphia and sold its rail designs to Bombardier Transportation.

Indiana Transportation Museum maintains a fleet of fourteen closed-window Budd Company coaches built for the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe.

Illinois Railway Museum is home to the Nebraska Zephyr articulated train along with several Budd Company-built passenger cars and a pair of CTA 2200 series cars.

Western Pacific Railroad Museum at Portola, California, features several Budd Company cars including the California Zephyr, the dome lounge car Silver Hostel, the diner car Silver Plate, and a Southern Pacific Budd Company sleeping car.

In 1939, the Budd company designed and fabricated the stainless steel skin for the blades of the Smith–Putnam wind turbine, the largest in the world for forty years.