CR&IP used RDCs from Memphis to San Antonio or Amarillo towing an extra car. I think it was called a "Rockette". That had to be a VERY long ride !!!
It ran to Amarillo. No one rode it far. There was a Memphis-Tucumcari limited, trains 21 and 22, that remained locomotive-hauled to the end. Names and numbers changed a lot. Are you sure it towed a trailer? I never heard that. (Edit: Yes, I guess you are!) The baggage door was blanked to enlarge the RPO. Bring too much baggage and you'll have to carry some of it in your lap.
I would take the slower one and give it a good lube, lightly at all points, the motor bearings. the truck gears and and drive train bearings. The slower speed could also be that upon assembly it was too tight causing some friction so just barely hand tighten the assembly machine screws and bolts and then give it a good long break in run in both directions. I would think about using Unimates in place of the couplers on the ends where the two cars couple. Typically they would be run with the baggage compartments leading and trailing and the two coach sections in the middle.
One of the early issues of Classic Trains had a piece about riding CRI&P #15. This one ran from I-forget-where to somewhere in Texas. It had a westbound consist of several cars. In the middle of the consist was an RDC-3. In addition to the RDC-3, there was mixed HW and LW equipment. The caption to the photograph called it a "modeller's dream" or words similar. The author of the piece mentioned that it was still cold outside on the prairie. Only the RDC-3 ran to the terminus of the train. It shed cars and finally the locomotive (which was a FM road switcher that day) as it moved west. I have to wonder: Did the CRI&P shops install pass-through steam lines on the RDC so that the cars behind it could be heated from the locomotive's steam generator? ........or did the RDC produce sufficient HEP to allow it to heat the cars behind it, thus the CRI&P shops could set them up to run on HEP? Did the RDC run in Georgia Overdrive until it was the only thing left in the consist, whence it would proceed under its own power to the terminus? Did running one of these things in Georgia Overdrive for long distances have any adverse effect on its hydraulic transmission?
According to the 1964 timetable, 15 and 16 operated between Minneapolis and Kansas City, combining at Allenton, Iowa with 5 and 8 from and to Chicago. But it seems to have continued, after an hour long stop in KC, as 39 and 40 to Tucumcari as a milk run on the Golden State route (though it, too, connected with an SP train there). This took it across the Texas panhandle, of course, which can have Colorado-like weather. But then, like a woman, the Rock Island reserved the right to change its mind. According to Streamliner Memories, in 1957: "Trains 14 & 15 were the Cherokee, which replaced trains 111 & 112, the Memphis Californian in Memphis-LA service; Former trains 15 & 16, the Short Line Express from Kansas City to Minneapolis, continued but the numbers changed to 16 & 17 (they were changed back by 1964--anyone else getting a headache?); Trains 51 & 52, the Memphis-AmarilloChoctaw Limited, were replaced by trains 51 & 52, the Memphis-Amarillo Choctaw Rockette, the closing “te” indicating a Rail Diesel Car instead of a full-fledged streamliner. At 762 miles, this was the second-longest RDC run in the country–it became the longest after Western Pacific stopped running the Oakland-Salt Lake City Zephyrette in 1960" I'm curious what effect getting towed would have on the Allison torque converters too. The New Haven's Roger Williams had electric motors on the other axles for third rail operation in the Park Ave. tunnel (Grand Central), which had a speed limit of 40 mph. I wonder if 39 and 40 ran any faster than that?
Speaking of speed, how fast do you suppose this consist (of 4 F-units with a heavyweight diner and an RDC-2 in tow) would have gone? http://www.snowcrest.net/photobob/wprdc2.jpg
