Today's #TrainTuesday finds us inside the a 1952 passenger car built by the Budd Company for the Pennsylvania Railroad, likely for either the railroad's Senator train, which traveled between Washington, D.C. and Boston, or its Congressional Limited Express, a which traveled the same route, but with limited stops.
This photograph, taken by Philadelphia photographer Lawrence S. Williams (1917-2016), is part of Hagley Library's collection of Budd Company photographs (Accession 1999.228). The Budd Company was a manufacturer of steel automobiles, passenger rail cars, and other transportation products.
Founded in 1912 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as the Edward G. Budd Manufacturing Company, the manufacturer began its life as a manufacturer of all-steel body automobiles. The company then became a major producer of automobile parts as well as a manufacturer of stainless steel passenger railroad cars and other products.
This material in this collection focuses on the Budd Company's rail division with some images of automobiles and wheel products and manufacturing. The bulk of the materials date from the 1940s, 1950s and the 1980s. There are exterior and interior views of plants showing both railroad car and automobile parts manufacturing. Many of the photographs are by well-known commercial photographers, such as Robert Yarnall Richie, William M. Rittase, and Richard T. Dooner.
To view this collection online now in our Digital Archive, click here.