WMATA 1000 makes an appearance

The first - though, I'm predicting, not the last - car on the PNAERC list to be repainted especially for the semiquincentennial, Washington Metro (WMATA) 1000 has shown up on the National Mall for display over the next couple of weeks according to this Facebook post. The car has been cosmetically restored to its as-built condition, at least from the looks of the photos, and really does look quite nice. It's being displayed alongside a mockup of the next generation of WMATA cars.

Car 1000, the very first Washington Metro car, was built by Rohr in 1974. It has been on the PNAERC list since 2019, but until now, I haven't been able to find a single photo of it. It, and the other cars in the WMATA historic fleet, have been securely stored deep in Greenbelt Yard in Maryland, and this is the first picture of any of these cars I've seen that was taken since they were marked for preservation. I'm not sure what the status is of car 1001, this car's mate, but hopefully it's still stored back at Greenbelt - and maybe even repainted along with car 1000.

WMATA 2000s Added to the List

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority announced today that they'd shipped the last of their 2000-series subway cars off to scrap - the last, that is, except for the pair they've set aside for preservation. Those cars weren't on the PNAERC list until now, but I've just added WMATA 2000 and 2001 to the database.

These two cars were built by Breda in 1981 and in terms of overall construction, they're extremely similar to the other WMATA cars that entered preservation a few years back. They were overhauled around 2002 or so and at that time they acquired upgraded inverter control and AC traction motors. This seems to have made them more reliable than the older 1000s, which acquired earlier-generation AC motors in the mid-1990s; the 4000s, which were never upgraded with AC motors; or even the 5000s, which were built in 2001 with AC motors. (The 3000s, built in the late 1980s and upgraded with AC motors around 2009, are still in service.) The last 2000-series cars were retired just about a year ago, in October 2024, and cars 2000-2001 were in the ceremonial last-day-of-service train (pictured above in a photo from here). As far as I know, cars 2000-2001 are stored in Greenbelt Yard along with the other six cars in the WMATA historic fleet.

And in other positive news, thanks to Anderson Pries for sending the above photo taken last weekend of Chicago Aurora & Elgin 316 at the Fox River Trolley Museum. The occasion was the dedication of this 1913 Jewett-built interurban car following a major restoration effort, and sister car 20 - the oldest operating interurban car in the country, but mostly out of service pending wheel work - came out for the first time in a few years for the occasion as well. Car 316's status has been updated to reflect that it is no longer under restoration, but has joined the FRTM operating fleet.

WMATA Additions

For a few years now, it's been suggested that more than just two Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) cars had been set aside for preservation by that system. The first two, from the system's original 1000-series order for cars, I knew about; but the 4000- and 5000-series had also been retired and, supposedly, the first pair from each series had been retained. However, evidence of this that I could find consisted of less-than-dependable sources - mostly random forum posts and Wikipedia. But, that's now changed! I found this WMATA fleet management plan from 2021 online.

Between that document and this 2021 Greenbelt Yard inspection form, which confirms car numbers, I can confidently add four more WMATA cars to the PNAERC list. Cars 4000 and 4001 were built in 1991 by Breda, and are the first cars on the PNAERC list to have been built by that company. As near as I can tell, they never went through a major overhaul like the 1000-series cars did and were the last cars on the system with DC traction motors. They were retired in 2017. Cars 5000 and 5001 were built a decade later, in 2001, and ran for just 17 years before retirement in 2018. These were the first cars built new for WMATA with AC traction motors, and like the 4000-series cars, went until retirement without a heavy overhaul. They're the first cars on the PNAERC list built by Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles, better known as CAF, which worked with a local firm called AAI Corporation to built and assemble them. They are now the newest cars on the PNAERC list, beating out NJT 4424 by a full five years.

This brings the WMATA historic fleet on PNAERC to six cars and brings the total size of the list up to 2,094 cars. But wait, there's more! WMATA announced just a couple of months ago that it is retiring its 2000-series cars, which were built in the early 1980s by Breda and overhauled in the early 2000s, and saving a pair. The fleet management plan linked earlier also suggests that the system plans to keep the first two cars of each order, suggesting cars 2000 and 2001 have been - or will be - set aside. Can anyone confirm that these two cars are indeed in the plan and whether or not they've already been put out to pasture at Greenbelt Yard? (By the way, post-retirement photos of any of the WMATA historic cars would be very much appreciated; I haven't found a decent photo of a single one of them since retirement. The photo at the top of this post is a random in-service shot I found online.)

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!