The Sidney herald., 1956-05-24
RDC's POPULAR IN
FOREIGN LANDS
BY Fred Staufer

The magic OF modern railroas
passenger travel has caught tn
fancy Of the public the world over
This is especially true in areas wher'
roads are poor or even nOn-existen'
and scheduled air service Is limited
to q few principal cities or towns In
such areas THE faneed wheel or
the iron rail-" translated into q self
propelled Rail Diesel Car is supply
ing the need for inst, comfortable
and reliable transportation
-Four examples onne Immediately
to mind: Saudi Arabia, Australia,
Cuba, and Canada Railroads. in
each OF these countries have adopted
in the postwar era use of the Budd
car, known as RDC-for Rail Diesel
Car-to modernize travel and faiI-
tate movement Of mail and express
Under conditions varying from
Cznadian cold to the deserts Of
Arabia and Australia this new In
strument of communication is prov
ing its worth economically and find
ing wide public acceptance.
Perhaps the most picturesque and
unusual assignment now being per
formed by RDC abroad is on
the Saudi Government Railroad in
Arabia. This railroad was built since
the war by Arabian American Oil
Co. at behest of the late King Ibr
Saud to connect the Persian Gull
port of Dammam with the capita
city of Riyadh, a distance Of
352 miles.
The American builders of the
road turned naturally to America
for equipment and motive power,
selecting for passenger use three
RDC combination passenger and
baggage units. Traversing a region
of shifting desert sands marked by
fierce heat in the coastal areas and
deep cold on the high plateau as the
route turns inland, the Saudi Rail-
road gives the Budd a a severe
test. A single car makes three round
trips a week over the 352-mile
route, taking nine hours for the
journey which formerly, and not
long ago, took days of plodding
camel caravan travel. The line even
tually is expected to be extended all
the way across Arabia TO the
Red Sea.
Meanwhile the RDC's are per-
forming other more local services in
Arabia, including six round trips a
day on q ten-mile run from the port
at Dammam to Dhahran, site of a
major oil company installation.
Another OF the cars makes a daily
round trip Of 80 miles between
Dammam and Hofuf, largest of the
oasis cities ii Arabia. The air-con-
ditioned comfort OF the cars and the
generally high reliability of the
service, in spite OF hazards of drift
ing sand, have found wide public
acceptance and added another vital
touch OF modernity to this ancient
land. In Arabia with its wealth OF
oil, dieselization OF the railroad was
natural from the start, and selection
OF the diesel-propeiled, a~ll-stainless
steel Budd cars for the passenger
service gave this unusual carrier its
chance to win acceptance by people
long accustomed to only the most
primitive transportation.
On the other side of the globe,
the Commonwealth Railways OF
Australia have found the Budd
RDC cars an important instrument
in providing passenger service over
routes perhaps as difficult as those
in Arabia. The Trans-Australia
Railway, running I,108 miles from
Kalgoorlie in Western Australia to
Port Augusta in South Australia,
has in service three RDC's, both for
local and long distance travel. This
route is through sparsely inhabited
and almost waterless desert. with