Hello,
I was wondering, what is the difference between Pullman passenger cars vs. Budd passenger cars?
What’s the difference between Ford and Chevy?
Most people swear BY one, and swear AT the other.
Seriously though, Pullman started out not selling its cars, but operating them on the railroads, like little hotels. My guess is that changing business practices caused Pullman to eventually give up operation in favor of simply manufacturing the equipment. In the meantime others, like Budd, got into the passenger car business.
You could say that Pullman was the Ford of the rail passenger business, though unlike Henry Ford, George Mortimer Pullman believed in frills.
Initially Pullman Standard built & owned their own cars leasing them out.
" In 1948 The Pullman Co. was forsed to give up it’s monopolistic ownership
of sleeping cars operated across North America, so most of its cars were sold to the railroads that were using them". MR Sept 03
Budd was pioneer of stainless steel passenger cars.
The two manufacturers used different construction techniques for the streamlined cars they built. Budd made extensive use of fluted stainless steel and welding. Pullman, and other makers of streamlined passenger cars, tended to use sheet metal and a variety of joining techniques in addition to welding. Budd cars can easily be distinguished from cars of other manufacturers, as the Budd cars invariably have fluted stainless steel roofs.
–John