For decades, the proud name of the New Haven Railroad was once synonymous with passenger travel. Linking principally New York and Boston, in the era when both cities were the US financial powerhouses that drove the Nation, the NH fielded a spectrum of passenger services that ranged form the basic local, commuter train to some of the most exotic, deluxe consists in the land. Their trains shared the landmark Grand Central Station and stood side by side with the NYC Great Steel Fleet, including the stellar 20th Century Limited. So, when increased competition from autos, busses and air travel began to chip away at passenger revenues in the 1950s, NH executives knew that status quo would never suffice.
The road’s passenger problem was compounded by much larger issues, a financial hangover of sorts from the post-World War I era when financial titan J. P. Morgan launched a hapless scheme to monopolize railroad transportation in New England. The NH was the “holding tank” for his ill-timed investments and from that point forward, the railroad careened toward bankruptcy on several occasions. But the NH passenger service was the showcase of the railroad and daily passenger lists were literally a “Who’s Who” of the powerbrokers that controlled the two financial centers. So, making a serious effort to inject new technology that promised increased revenue and greater public favor was considered to be a sound investment.
All those challenges became the focus of NH President Patrick B. McGinnis. PBM, served in that capacity only from April 1954 to January 1956, and was a most unconventional and controversial individual, traits he shared with the NYC Chairman Robert R. Young. Both men had an inordinate level of optimism for the future of railroad passenger travel. To underscore his beliefs, PBM contracted three train sets of new motive power and car designs and each of the three sets would feature the latest technology and design concepts packaged with bold, contemporary graphics that were a collaboration between Marcel Breuer part of the new visual identity created by Knoll Associates.
The three “Trains of the Future” were the Dan’l Webster (based on the Xplorer design of Baldwin-Lima Hamilton and Pullman-Standard) the John Quincy Adams (based on the Talgo design by Fairbanks-Morse and ACF) and finally the Roger Williams, a modified train set of Budd Company RDC-1 cars. The Budd train was comprised of six, self-propelled cars. The cars at each end had short, rounded front-ends and were the cab cars. The four coaches in the center of the train were lower than conventional RDC-1 cars since they were built to the Budd Pioneer III specifications. The selection of colonial-themed names for the new trains was a curious mixture of looking back and a bold jump to the future. All three arrived between 1956 and 1957 but by 1958, it was clear that only the four, Budd-built Roger Williams center coaches had any future left.
The Roger Williams cars could be mated with other, conventional RDC cars in the general NH commuter fleet and soldiered on for decades. They worked for the New Haven, Penn Central, and Amtrak, until the last cars were retired in the 1980s. In the 1970s, Amtrak used several ex-Roger Williams cars on the New Haven–Boston Bay State. The balance of the power units and coaches from the three “Trains of the Future” were stored and most units were eventually scrapped by 1974. The Pickens Railroad did acquire the coaches from the John Quincy Adams but used them for parts only and all were scrapped by 1970.
The Roger Williams name is once again in the forefront, by way of a new scale model from Rapido. Please check our listings to see the options that are available. Interest in the “Trains of the Future” runs strong, so please check back with us regularly for any future releases of these pace-setting trains of the 1950s.
Frank Wrabel
Modeltrainstuff.com