Private company

Budd Company

American manufacturing company

The 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. The company was founded in 1912 in Philadelphia by Edward G. Budd, whose fame came from his development of the first all-steel automobile bodies in 1913, and his company's invention of the "shotweld" technique for joining pieces of stainless steel without damaging its anti-corrosion properties in the 1930s.² It was founded by Edward Gowen Budd Sr.¹ Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1912Founded¹

Industryaviation, mechanical engineering¹
HeadquartersPhiladelphia¹
Legal formprivately held company¹

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The story

Founded by Edward Gowen Budd Sr. in 1912.¹

After briefly dabbling with French Michelin rubber-tired technology ("Michelines" and the Silver Slipper), they built the Pioneer Zephyr for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad in 1934, the first of several integrated streamliner trainsets. The General Pershing Zephyr of 1938 pioneered the use of disc brakes on railroad passenger cars. Budd built thousands of streamlined lightweight stainless steel passenger cars for new trains in the US in the 1930s through the 1980s.

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

In the late 1940s, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad sought a way to increase capacity on commuter trains serving Chicago, Illinois, without having to add more cars. Chicago Union Station charged railroads by the length of each train. Budd 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. To address the issue of the conductor collecting tickets without having to climb stairs, the upper level was designed with its center portion open so that the conductor could reach the tickets from upper-level passengers. Rows of individual seats on each side of the car provided the increase in seating capacity.

The unique design of the upper level's open center section led to the cars being called Gallery Cars. Burlington approved the design and ordered 30 cars. These cars, built as Budd lot 9679–041, were delivered between August 1950 and January 1951 and not only marked a change in how the commuters were handled but were the first cars in commuter service to have air conditioning. The Burlington retrofitted its earlier cars with air conditioning once the new cars entered service.

With the first of the new commuter cars in service on the Burlington, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway also approached Budd to improve their rolling stock. In September 1952, the Santa Fe placed an order for two two-level prototypes, Budd's Lot 9679–129. Carrying the numbers 526 and 527, they were delivered in July 1954, at which time both were placed into service for evaluation.

These prototypes had seating on both levels, stairs on one end to provide access to single-level cars, a stairway at the center of the car for access to toilets on the lower level, and a side door for passenger access. The lower floor also contained various mechanical and pneumatic equipment that otherwise would be mounted below the floors of single-level cars.

With the two Hi-Level prototypes in service proving to not only meet the needs of line but also being popular with passengers, the Santa Fe again approached Budd with the idea of building additional two-level cars.

Budd developed another generation of cars for Santa Fe in five different configurations: step-down coaches like the two prototype cars, convertible coaches which could have one end of the car converted from the high level on both ends to a step-down car as needed, coaches with both ends of the car having the end door at the upper level's height to provide access to adjoining passenger cars, and dining and lounge cars (with kitchens on the lower level) with partially glassed-in roofs similar to the Big Dome lounge cars that were also built by Budd and delivered around the time the prototype Hi-Level cars were built.

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The order for additional cars was placed in March 1955 for 10 68-seat step-down coaches (delivered between December 1955 and January 1956 and numbered 528 to 537), 25 72-seat Hi-Level coaches (delivered between January and April 1956 numbered 700 to 724), six 60-seat bar/lounge/news-stand coaches with 26-seat lower-level lounges (delivered between May and June 1956), and six 80-seat dining cars (delivered between June and August 1956 numbered 650 to 655).

With these cars delivered, the Santa Fe re-equipped the El Capitan, the only coach train operated between Chicago and Los Angeles, and assigned some to the Chicago–Galveston, Texas, Texas Chief line. An additional 12 step-down coaches, numbered 538 to 549, and 12 convertible coaches, numbered 725 to 736, were ordered in November 1962 and delivered between December 1963 and April 1964.

From Wikipedia’s article on Budd Company, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.³

Leadership

Who has led Budd Company, and when. Pick a name to see everywhere that person has worked.

FounderEdward Gowen Budd Sr.¹

Products and brands

Divisions and subsidiaries

By the end of the 1950s, Budd had the following divisions and subsidiaries:

Budd Lewyt Electronics, Inc. — special-purpose data processing systems, communications equipment, instrumentation, and environmental control products for electronics.

Tatnall Measuring Systems Division — physical testing equipment, metal film strain gages, standard and custom load cells, and a unique PhotoStress technique for direct strain measurements.

Continental-Diamond Fibre Corporation — special high-heat resistant materials for ablation applications, laminated and molded plastics, vulcanized fiber, and bonded mica in the form of sheets, rods, tubes, and tape.

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Defense Division — advanced aerospace and atomic structures, coupling a broad research and engineering capability with extensive prototype and production facilities.

Nuclear Systems Division — gamma radiography equipment for non-destructive testing of airframes, providing beam, panoramic, and internal exposures in shop and field.

Electronic Controls Section — monautronic resistance welding controls for the aircraft industry.

Final years of railcar production

Budd built two series of "L" cars for the Chicago Transit Authority, the 2200 series (1969–1970). and the 2600 series (1981–1987). They also built the New York City Subway R32 (1964–1965), the first PATCO Speedline cars (1968–1969) and the Long Island Rail Road/Metro-North Railroad M-1/M-3 (1968–1973,1984–1986). The Baltimore Metro and Miami Metrorail cars (1983) were built by Budd and marketed as Universal Transit Vehicles; a similar set of cars (known as the Breda A650) were built by Breda for the Red and Purple lines of the Los Angeles Metro Rail between 1988 and 1997. Stainless steel railcars were also built in Portugal by Sorefame under license.

Amtrak's 492 Amfleet I and 150 Amfleet II cars were built by Budd in 1975–77 and 1981–83. The Metroliner-based Amfleet body was recycled for use in the SPV-2000, a modernized diesel passenger car which was intended as a successor to the RDC but proved to be very problematic. It had only four buyers: (Amtrak, ONCF, Metro-North and Connecticut Department of Transportation) and would mostly be prematurely retired within 15 years due to reliability issues. The fallout from the SPV-2000 furthered the company's decline.

In 1978, as Budd began to phase out its railcar business to concentrate on the automotive industry, it was acquired by Thyssen AG, becoming its automotive division in Europe (Thyssen Automotive) and North America (Budd Thyssen). The CTA 2600 series cars were finished in 1987 and were the last railcars to be built by Budd/Transit America.

In the mid-1980s, Budd reorganized its rail operations under the name Transit America. Nonetheless, on April 3, 1987, Budd ended all railcar production at its Red Lion plant in Philadelphia and sold its rail designs to Bombardier Transportation. Many of its engineers joined the staff of Louis T. Klauder and Associates, a local railway vehicles and systems engineering consulting firm.

Modern role in auto industry

When Thyssen merged with Krupp in 1999, Budd Thyssen became ThyssenKrupp Budd Co. in North America and ThyssenKrupp Automotive Systems GmbH in Europe. In 2006, ThyssenKrupp sold the majority of Budd's operations. Its body and chassis operations were sold to Martinrea International Inc. The plastics manufacturing and molding operations were sold to Continental Structural Plastics and the aluminum casing company Stahl was sold to Speyside Equity. Its last remaining operation was sold in 2012.

Industrial facilities

Budd operated at multiple sites in the Philadelphia area. It had a brick factory in Nicetown. An automobile parts factory on Hunting Park Avenue closed in 2002. Rail car manufacturing was accomplished at the Red Lion Plant at Red Lion and Verree Roads in Philadelphia. The company moved its headquarters from Philadelphia to Troy, Michigan, in 1972. In 2002, the company operated 39 factories with approximately 12,000 employees in North America.