Ralph Budd
Encyclopedia
Ralph Budd was an American railroad executive.
on August 20, 1879. After graduating at nineteen from Des Moines’ Highland Park College, he began railway service as a draftsman in the Chicago Great Western’s divisional engineering office.
In 1902 Budd joined the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad
for the construction of its St. Louis-Kansas City
line. 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 the Great Northern Railway's line across Montana
's Marias Pass
, and would soon go on to plan the Panama Canal
at the behest of Theodore Roosevelt
. Budd followed Stevens to Panama
, working on the engineering of the Panama Railway
.
He followed Stevens again in 1910, this time to Oregon
. There, Stevens was working for his old Great Northern boss, James J. Hill
, on constructing the Oregon Trunk from the Pacific Northwest
into northern California
. This route, composed of the Spokane, Portland and Seattle, the Oregon Trunk, the Western Pacific Railroad
, and the Atchison, 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.
in Washington, a project that cost $25 million and eliminated an earlier summit tunnel under the Cascade Range
and 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 the United 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 with Howard Elliott
of the Northern Pacific Railway
, Budd began the third attempt to formally merge the Hill Lines. This was the first attempt since the disastrous Northern Securities Case of 1904. This ultimately resulted in failure, when the Interstate Commerce Commission
agreed to the merger, but only if the Hill Lines let go of their vital link to Chicago
-- the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
.
, January 1, 1932 Ralph Budd left the Great Northern to become president of the Burlington. While leading the Burlington, he met Edward G. Budd
(distant relation), who had formed the Budd Company
in 1912, and had recently begun to apply his automobile
body construction knowledge to build railroad passenger equipment in a new venture using stainless steel.
The Budd Company built the Pioneer Zephyr
for Burlington, and the train's "dawn-to-dusk" run from Denver, Colorado
, to Chicago, Illinois, on May 26, 1934, in an unprecedented thirteen hours and five minutes, helped usher in the railroad streamliner
era. Both Ralph and Edward Budd, among other notable men including H. L. Hamilton, president of the Winton Motor Company which 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 from The 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." In the summer of 1939 he persuaded the Denver and Rio Grande and 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 fabled California Zephyr
.
Budd also worked to complete the Dotsero Cut-Off, which opened in 1934, and led to fourfold increase of Burlington business through Denver.
In 1939, Budd was awarded the George R. Henderson Medal.
By 1945, Budd had become intrigued with Electro-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 in Railway Age at the time of his retirement in 1949, the Burlington was 'principally the lengthened shadow of Ralph Budd.'"
. He arranged the donation of the Burlington's corporate records to the Newberry Library
. Though he supported many publication which chronicle the history of the Burlington, Budd himself turned down a professorship at Northwestern University
, claiming his lack of qualifications. In 1949, he founded The Lexington Group in Transportation History http://www.lexingtongroup.org/, which holds annual meetings to this day.
Ralph Budd retired to Santa Barbara, California
, in 1954, and died on February 2, 1962.
His son, John Marshall Budd John M. Budd
, also became president of the Great Northern Railway, and together with Robert Stetson Macfarlane
of the Northern Pacific Railway
, worked from 1955 until 1970 to merge the Hill Lines into the Burlington Northern Railroad
(today's BNSF Railway
).
in the 1920s and 1930s. On May 15, 1929, the boat ran aground in Eagle Harbor, Michigan, during a fierce winter storm; the crew escaped via lifeboats and the boat was eventually repaired and returned to service.
Early life
One of six children of John and Mary Budd, Ralph was born on a farm near Waterloo, IowaWaterloo, Iowa
Waterloo is a city in and the county seat of Black Hawk County, Iowa, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census the population decreased by 0.5% to 68,406. Waterloo is part of the Waterloo – Cedar Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, and is the more populous of the two...
on August 20, 1879. After graduating at nineteen from Des Moines’ Highland Park College, he began railway service as a draftsman in the Chicago Great Western’s divisional engineering office.
In 1902 Budd joined the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad
Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad
The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was also known as the Rock Island Line, or, in its final years, The Rock.-Incorporation:...
for the construction of its St. Louis-Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
line. It was on the Rock that Budd met one of the deans of American railroad civil engineering, John Frank Stevens
John Frank Stevens
John Frank Stevens was an American engineer who built the Great Northern Railway in the United States and was chief engineer on the Panama Canal between 1905 and 1907.- Biography :...
. Stevens' was already well known for his location of the Great Northern Railway's line across Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
's Marias Pass
Marias Pass
Marias Pass is a high mountain pass near Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana in the United States.The pass traverses the continental divide in the Lewis Range, along the boundary between the Lewis and Clark National Forest and the Flathead National Forest...
, and would soon go on to plan the Panama Canal
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...
at the behest of Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
. Budd followed Stevens to Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
, working on the engineering of the Panama Railway
Panama Railway
The Panama Canal Railway Company is a railway line that links the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean across Panama in Central America. It is jointly owned by the Kansas City Southern Railway and Mi-Jack Products...
.
He followed Stevens again in 1910, this time to Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
. There, Stevens was working for his old Great Northern boss, James J. Hill
James J. Hill
James Jerome Hill , was a Canadian-American railroad executive. He was the chief executive officer of a family of lines headed by the Great Northern Railway, which served a substantial area of the Upper Midwest, the northern Great Plains, and Pacific Northwest...
, on constructing the Oregon Trunk from the Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
into northern California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. This route, composed of the Spokane, Portland and Seattle, the Oregon Trunk, the Western Pacific Railroad
Western Pacific Railroad
The Western Pacific Railroad was a Class I railroad in the United States. It was formed in 1903 as an attempt to break the near-monopoly the Southern Pacific Railroad had on rail service into northern California...
, and the Atchison, 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
At the age of 40, in 1919, Budd became the youngest railroad president in America when he became president of the Great Northern Railway. Under his tenure at Great Northern, the railway built the Cascade TunnelCascade Tunnel
The Cascade Tunnel refers to two tunnels at Stevens Pass through the Cascade Mountains, approximately to the east of Everett, Washington. The first Cascade Tunnel was a 2.63-mile long single track railroad, built by the Great Northern Railway in 1900 to avoid problems caused by heavy winter...
in Washington, a project that cost $25 million and eliminated an earlier summit tunnel under the Cascade Range
Cascade Range
The Cascade Range is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, and the notable volcanoes known as the High Cascades...
and 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 the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
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 with Howard Elliott
Howard Elliott
Howard Elliott was president of Northern Pacific Railway 1903-1913, and president of New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad beginning in 1913.-Biography:...
of the Northern Pacific Railway
Northern Pacific Railway
The Northern Pacific Railway was a railway that operated in the west along the Canadian border of the United States. Construction began in 1870 and the main line opened all the way from the Great Lakes to the Pacific when former president Ulysses S. Grant drove in the final "golden spike" in...
, Budd began the third attempt to formally merge the Hill Lines. This was the first attempt since the disastrous Northern Securities Case of 1904. This ultimately resulted in failure, when the Interstate Commerce Commission
Interstate Commerce Commission
The Interstate Commerce Commission was a regulatory body in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads to ensure fair rates, to eliminate rate discrimination, and to regulate other aspects of common carriers, including...
agreed to the merger, but only if the Hill Lines let go of their vital link to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
-- the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad
The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington or as the Q, the Burlington Route served a large area, including extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri,...
.
Burlington
At one of the lowest points in the Great DepressionGreat Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, January 1, 1932 Ralph Budd left the Great Northern to become president of the Burlington. While leading the Burlington, he met Edward G. Budd
Edward G. Budd
Edward Gowen Budd was an American inventor and businessman.Budd was born in Delaware in 1870. He studied engineering in Philadelphia in 1888, and in 1899 he took his knowledge of pressed steel to the railroad industry...
(distant relation), who had formed the Budd Company
Budd Company
The Budd Company is a metal fabricator and major supplier of body components to the automobile industry, and was formerly a manufacturer of stainless steel passenger rail cars during the 20th century....
in 1912, and had recently begun to apply his automobile
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
body construction knowledge to build railroad passenger equipment in a new venture using stainless steel.
The Budd Company built the Pioneer Zephyr
Pioneer Zephyr
The Pioneer Zephyr is a diesel-powered railroad train formed of railroad cars permanently articulated together with Jacobs bogies, built by the Budd Company in 1934 for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad , commonly known as the Burlington...
for Burlington, and the train's "dawn-to-dusk" run from Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
, to Chicago, Illinois, on May 26, 1934, in an unprecedented thirteen hours and five minutes, helped usher in the railroad streamliner
Streamliner
A streamliner is a vehicle incorporating streamlining in a shape providing reduced air resistance. The term is applied to high-speed railway trainsets of the 1930s to 1950s, and to their successor "bullet trains". Less commonly, the term is applied to fully faired recumbent bicycles...
era. Both Ralph and Edward Budd, among other notable men including H. L. Hamilton, president of the Winton Motor Company which 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 from The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century. The tales are told as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at...
, 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." In the summer of 1939 he persuaded the Denver and Rio Grande and 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 fabled California Zephyr
California Zephyr
The California Zephyr is a long passenger train route operated by Amtrak in the midwestern and western United States.It runs from Chicago, Illinois, in the east to Emeryville, California, in the west, passing through the states of Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and California...
.
Budd also worked to complete the Dotsero Cut-Off, which opened in 1934, and led to fourfold increase of Burlington business through Denver.
In 1939, Budd was awarded the George R. Henderson Medal.
By 1945, Budd had become intrigued with Electro-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 in Railway Age at the time of his retirement in 1949, the Burlington was 'principally the lengthened shadow of Ralph Budd.'"
Later life
After retirement, Budd spent five years as chairman of the Chicago Transit AuthorityChicago Transit Authority
Chicago Transit Authority, also known as CTA, is the operator of mass transit within the City of Chicago, Illinois and some of its surrounding suburbs....
. He arranged the donation of the Burlington's corporate records to the Newberry Library
Newberry Library
The Newberry Library is a privately endowed, independent research library for the humanities and social sciences in Chicago, Illinois. Although it is private, non-circulating library, the Newberry Library is free and open to the public...
. Though he supported many publication which chronicle the history of the Burlington, Budd himself turned down a professorship at Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
, claiming his lack of qualifications. In 1949, he founded The Lexington Group in Transportation History http://www.lexingtongroup.org/, which holds annual meetings to this day.
Ralph Budd retired to Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
, in 1954, and died on February 2, 1962.
His son, John Marshall Budd John M. Budd
John M. Budd
John Marshall Budd was chairman and chief executive officer of Burlington Northern Railroad from 1970 to 1971, chairman from 1971 to 1972, and a director from 1970 to 1977.-Family:...
, also became president of the Great Northern Railway, and together with Robert Stetson Macfarlane
Robert Stetson Macfarlane
Robert Stetson Macfarlane was president of Northern Pacific Railway 1951-1966.He was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 15, 1899, the son of Walker K. and Blanche Macfarlane. He married Vivian Clemans on February 21, 1925; together they had Anne , Mary , Robert, Jr., and Vivian Robert...
of the Northern Pacific Railway
Northern Pacific Railway
The Northern Pacific Railway was a railway that operated in the west along the Canadian border of the United States. Construction began in 1870 and the main line opened all the way from the Great Lakes to the Pacific when former president Ulysses S. Grant drove in the final "golden spike" in...
, worked from 1955 until 1970 to merge the Hill Lines into the Burlington Northern Railroad
Burlington Northern Railroad
The Burlington Northern Railroad was a United States-based railroad company formed from a merger of four major U.S. railroads. Burlington Northern operated between 1970 and 1996....
(today's BNSF Railway
BNSF Railway
The BNSF Railway is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. It is one of seven North American Class I railroads and the second largest freight railroad network in North America, second only to the Union Pacific Railroad, its primary...
).
Other uses of the name Ralph Budd
The name Ralph Budd was also applied to a commercial steamship that plied the Great LakesGreat Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
in the 1920s and 1930s. On May 15, 1929, the boat ran aground in Eagle Harbor, Michigan, during a fierce winter storm; the crew escaped via lifeboats and the boat was eventually repaired and returned to service.