Product Description
The Budd Company of Philadelphia (Red Lion and Hunting Park plants) built the shot-welded stainless-steel passenger cars that defined mid-20th-century American passenger railroading — the Zephyrs, the Empire Builder equipment, the California Zephyr Vista-Domes, the RDC Rail Diesel Car, the Silverliner MU commuter cars, the Metroliner, and Amtrak’s original Amfleet I and Amfleet II. According to publicly filed asbestos litigation records, Budd carbodies allegedly incorporated asbestos-cement board and asbestos millboard insulation panels between the stainless outer sheathing and the interior wall and ceiling finish, allegedly providing thermal insulation for the steam-heat era and continuing as sound and fire-barrier insulation into the electric HEP era. Steam heating risers and the ceiling raceways housing 480V HEP cabling allegedly ran adjacent to or through these panels.
Workers Exposed
Railroad car maintainers at Amtrak Beech Grove and Bear DE, Reading commuter shops, SEPTA Overbrook and Wayne Junction, Metra 47th Street, and MBTA shops allegedly cut, drilled, and disturbed Budd body panels during interior refurbishment, HEP retrofit, side-sheet dent repair, and end-of-life overhauls. Railroad electricians running new HEP and communication cable through carbody cavities allegedly broke through the same panels. Shop laborers cleaning up debris allegedly encountered airborne fiber.