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Ralph Budd

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Ralph Budd
Budd circa 1945
President of theGreat Northern Railway
In office
1919 – January 1, 1932
Succeeded byWilliam Patrick Kenney
Personal details
Born(1879-08-20)August 20, 1879
nearWaterloo, Iowa
DiedFebruary 2, 1962(1962-02-02)(aged 82)
Santa Barbara, California,

Ralph Budd(August 20, 1879 – February 2, 1962) was an American railroad executive who was the president of theGreat Northern Railwayfrom 1919 up until 1932, when he served as president of theChicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroaduntil his retirement in 1949.

Early life

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One of six children of John and Mary Budd, Ralph was born on a farm nearWaterloo, Iowa,on August 20, 1879. After graduating at nineteen from Des Moines'Highland Park College,he began railway service as a draftsman in theChicago Great Western’s divisional engineering office.

In 1902 Budd joined theChicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroadfor the construction of itsSt. Louis-Kansas Cityline. It was on the Rock that Budd met one of the deans of American railroad civil engineering,John Frank Stevens.Stevens' was already well known for his location of theGreat Northern Railway's line acrossMontana'sMarias Pass,and would soon go on to plan thePanama Canalat the behest ofTheodore Roosevelt.Budd followed Stevens toPanama,working on the engineering of thePanama Railway.

He followed Stevens again in 1910, this time toOregon.There, Stevens was working for his old Great Northern boss,James J. Hill,on constructing the Oregon Trunk from thePacific Northwestinto northernCalifornia.This route, composed of theSpokane, Portland and Seattle,theOregon Trunk Railway,theWestern Pacific Railroad,and theAtchison, Topeka and Santa Fe,was finally pieced together in the 1930s. It gave the Hill Lines a route into the heart of California and became known as the "Inside Gateway." His work with Stevens brought Budd to the attention of Hill, who left confidential instructions that after his death, Budd should be appointed president of the Great Northern.

Great Northern Railway

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Budd is shown fourth from left in this 1926 photo at the Mill Creek shaft of the Cascade Tunnel

At the age of 40, in 1919, Budd became the youngest railroad president in America when he became president of theGreat Northern Railway.Under his tenure at Great Northern, the railway built theCascade TunnelinWashington,a project that cost $25 million and eliminated an earlier summit tunnel under theCascade Rangeand a rugged alignment through an avalanche-prone area. At 7.79 miles in length, the Great Northern's New Cascade Tunnel remains the longest railroad tunnel in theUnited States.

Over the course of thirteen years, Budd's administration invested $79,000,000 in improvements, $75,000,000 more in rolling stock, and nearly $7,000,000 in the construction of new lines.

In the 1920s, together withHoward Elliottof theNorthern Pacific Railway,Budd began the third attempt to formally merge the Hill Lines. This was the first attempt since the disastrousNorthern Securities Caseof 1904. This ultimately resulted in failure, when theInterstate Commerce Commissionagreed to the merger, but only if the Hill Lines let go of their vital link toChicago—theChicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad.

Burlington

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At one of the lowest points in theGreat Depression,January 1, 1932, Ralph Budd left the Great Northern to become president of the Burlington. While leading the Burlington, he metEdward G. Budd(distant relation), who had formed theBudd Companyin 1912, and had recently begun to apply hisautomobilebody construction knowledge to build railroad passenger equipment in a new venture using stainless steel. The Budd Company built thePioneer Zephyrfor Burlington, and the train's "dawn-to-dusk" run fromDenver, Colorado,toChicago, Illinois,on May 26, 1934, in an unprecedented thirteen hours and five minutes, helped usher in the railroadstreamlinerera. Both Ralph and Edward Budd, among other notable men includingH. L. Hamilton,president of theWinton Motor Companywhich built the motor for the train, were passengers aboard the record-setting run; the train's speed averaged 77.1 miles per hour (124.1 km/h), reaching a top speed of 112.5 miles per hour (181 km/h). The name of the new train came fromThe Canterbury Tales,which Ralph Budd had been reading. The story begins with pilgrims setting out on a journey, inspired by the budding springtime and by Zephyrus, the gentle and nurturing west wind. Ralph Budd thought that would be an excellent name for a sleek new traveling machine: "Zephyr."[1]In the summer of 1939 he persuaded theDenver and Rio Grandeand the Western Pacific to join the Burlington in establishing a daily through train to the Pacific Coast; a decade later it was replaced by the fabledCalifornia Zephyr.

Budd also worked to complete the Dotsero Cut-Off, which opened in 1934, and led to fourfold increase of Burlington business throughDenver.

In 1939, Budd was awarded theGeorge R. Henderson Medal.

By 1945, Budd had become intrigued withElectro-Motive Diesel’s Cyrus R. Osborne’s idea of a dome passenger car, and built the first experimental one in the Burlington's Aurora Shops.

In 1940 and again in 1949, Budd sponsored two elaborate historical pageants on the Burlington and was one of the moving spirits behind the extremely successful Railroad Fair held on Chicago’s lakefront in 1948-49.

Burlington historian Richard C. Overton wrote: "The Burlington, with Budd in command, was virtually a training school for railway executives. Men like Fred Gurley, John Farrington, Fred Whitman, Harry Murphy, and [Alfred] E. Perlman, all of whom went on to head great railways, served varying terms on the Burlington while Budd was at its head. As James G. Lyne put it inRailway Ageat the time of his retirement in 1949, the Burlington was 'principally the lengthened shadow of Ralph Budd.' "

Later life

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After retirement, Budd spent five years as chairman of theChicago Transit Authority.He arranged the donation of the Burlington's corporate records to theNewberry Library.Though he supported many publication which chronicled the history of the Burlington, Budd himself turned down a professorship atNorthwestern University,claiming his lack of qualifications. In 1949, he founded The Lexington Group in Transportation History,[2]which holds annual meetings to this day.

Ralph Budd retired toSanta Barbara, California,in 1954, and died on February 2, 1962.

Legacy

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His son, John Marshall BuddJohn M. Budd,also became president of theGreat Northern Railway,and together withRobert Stetson Macfarlaneof theNorthern Pacific Railway,worked from 1955 until 1970 to merge the Hill Lines into theBurlington Northern Railroad(today'sBNSF Railway).

The nameRalph Buddwas also applied to a commercial steamship that plied theGreat Lakesin the 1920s and 1930s. On May 15, 1929, the boat ran aground inEagle Harbor, Michigan,during a fierce winter storm. The crew escaped in lifeboats, and the ship was later repaired and returned to service.

Ralph Budd was 1935 Commencement speaker atRice Universityand donated his honorarium to Rice for the benefit of students as Ralph Budd Thesis award. The award is given annually to the graduate student judged to have the best doctoral thesis in theGeorge R. Brown School of Engineering.This award was established in June, 1935, and is one of the oldest and most prestigious awards for graduate students at Rice University.

Control Point "Budd" (a double track crossover on theBNSF Railway's mainline along the Mississippi River) is named after Ralph Budd. The crossover is located just south ofEast Dubuque, Illinois.

See also

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References

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  1. ^"Biography: Ralph Budd".PBS.Retrieved2012-12-14.
  2. ^"The Lexington Group in Transportation History".Lexington Group.Retrieved2012-12-14.

Further reading

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