Friday, September 6, 2019

Washington Metro cars

I've decided to bite the bullet and add a pair of Washington Metro cars to the PNAERC list. The first two cars built for the system back in 1974, Rohr-built cars 1000 and 1001, have - by multiple accounts - been set aside by WMATA for preservation. It sounds like they're currently stored at Greenbelt Yard in Maryland, possibly being refurbished. I've tried getting absolute confirmation of this fact, including contacting WMATA itself, without any luck. However there have been some rumored sightings of the cars in recent months and I found an official WMATA pronouncement here that these two cars were being preserved. So I'll make the leap and assume that these two cars are, indeed, squirreled away at Greenbelt Yard and being kept around for the foreseeable future.

I've had only moderate luck finding mechanical information about these cars, and most of what I've found has come from Wikipedia (ecch), so I'm interested in any information on the cars' mechanical equipment. They were rebuilt in the 1990s with AC traction motors, which I think makes these the first modern equipment on the PNAERC list with AC motors. They're also the first Rohr-built cars on the list.

WMATA has recently retired, or will soon retire, a few other series of cars and there have been rumors that at least one or possibly two more pairs of cars might be marked by them for preservation. As always, submissions of information are greatly appreciated!

No comments:

Post a Comment