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Budd 'Silver Princess'


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G'day all,

One that I think will interest a fair few people on here and beyond. Upon a recent visit with a very good friend, we came onto the topic (whilst running his custom made HO Deltics) of the Budd license car, Silver Princess. It was mentioned by this gentlemen that he so happened to have a few photographs of this car, and off he proceeded to find them. His search in person failed to find the photographs, but he did pull out a full, period Budd catalogue, which contained within a VERY clear photograph of Silver Princess, and what is probably the most commonly known photograph of the car since it was published in the John Dunn Comeng book (Vol 2: 1955-1966). Upon returning back home, I received an email from the gentleman which contained the other 7 photographs of the car. These photographs are below, split over a few posts. They are uploaded at full resolution as much as possible to allow all the detail to be retained.

If anybody has drawings of the car in either original form as shown, or later rebuilt form with smooth sides, I would be very much interested in seeing them with the intention to create a small number of models of the car. Photographs in later condition (even in Crimson and Cream prior to rebuilding with smooth sides) would also be very much of interest.

01.jpg

02.jpg

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  • RMweb Gold

As I am without access to those drawings, a few questions leap to mind...

 

Was it supplied with those bogies or are they the BR1 type they look like. Budd had already moved on to coil springs and equilizer beams by the build date so I think an opportunity was missed considering what was learned later about the BR1 ride. Is it possibly a Budd body on a Mk1 frame? (A closer look at the pics on a PC not a phone show it was lifted off the ship with them fitted... Also, it has no buffers but that appears to be where the lifting equipment is attached and they must have fitted later)

 

Is it 63ft? It looks very short (like 57ft BG looks next to a Mk1 coach).

 

What happened to it?

 

Budd cars from the 50s are still in use in the US and Canada (though probably much like Trigger's broom after multiple refurbishment rebuilds) and seem to have lasted rather better than the Mk2 and Mk4 series, though no doubt the intensity of use has been far greater in UK. It might have been a very different looking railway if Britain could have or wanted to afford these. It would be interesting to know if there were any licence productions considered.

Edited by daveyb
Answered my own question!!!
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1 hour ago, daveyb said:

Was it supplied with those bogies or are they the BR1 type they look like.

 

It would be interesting to know if there were any licence productions considered.

 

They were the welded version of the LMS standard bogie.

 

If production had gone ahead in the UK they would have been built by Pressed Steel Co. Ltd.

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Didn't realise it had a third class saloon and first class compartments. 

It looks to be of integral construction so reskinning it must have been quite a big job unless these they just put the fresh metal over the original 

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Cool, really like the look of that and it must have been a jaw dropper compared to the drab and probably very dirty post war coaches.  Does anyone have a timeline for it, from when it arrived to withdrawal?

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20 minutes ago, jools1959 said:

Cool, really like the look of that and it must have been a jaw dropper compared to the drab and probably very dirty post war coaches.  Does anyone have a timeline for it, from when it arrived to withdrawal?

 

June 1966 according to Longworth. Converted to a bar-car in 1956, from a composite.

 

Regards

 

Guy

Edited by balders
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3 hours ago, daveyb said:

As I am without access to those drawings, a few questions leap to mind...

 

Was it supplied with those bogies or are they the BR1 type they look like. Budd had already moved on to coil springs and equilizer beams by the build date so I think an opportunity was missed considering what was learned later about the BR1 ride. Is it possibly a Budd body on a Mk1 frame? (A closer look at the pics on a PC not a phone show it was lifted off the ship with them fitted... Also, it has no buffers but that appears to be where the lifting equipment is attached and they must have fitted later)

 

Is it 63ft? It looks very short (like 57ft BG looks next to a Mk1 coach).

 

What happened to it?

 

Budd cars from the 50s are still in use in the US and Canada (though probably much like Trigger's broom after multiple refurbishment rebuilds) and seem to have lasted rather better than the Mk2 and Mk4 series, though no doubt the intensity of use has been far greater in UK. It might have been a very different looking railway if Britain could have or wanted to afford these. It would be interesting to know if there were any licence productions considered.

Google and some links have answered most of the questions. It was a 63'6" frame, the bogies were LMS (thanks Bernard TPM) design (though still fairly primitive by Budd Standards) and it lasted until 1966.

 

Pressed Steel became involved in DMU production and later were absorbed into BLMC /BMC /BL along with Metal Box. Had they done much railway work before then?

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1 hour ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Also from Robert Carroll's  wonderful collection is this photo of it after being rebuilt

 

Does anyone know of a photo showing the other side. 

 

There is a 2 page feature in the December 2007 Backtrack with the other side.

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