A3 #1459

This car had the bold-faced number plates on the sides of the center doors and on the inside, facing the vestibule door, I think this car was formerly 3xxx (according to the imprints), with "NO SMOKING" in not so perfectly aligned format. (This means, no symbol of No Smoking)

Was this a remnant of the rebuild?

THATS the car number I was trying to think of a few weeks back -

Bigc mentioned somehting that when the A3's were rebuilt, the first few were actually renumbered. that was the car that I thought of when he mentioned that. It does look like a 3XXX, but i could never make out the other numbers, and trust me, Ive looked up close (climbed up on the seats to get closer)

Oh yea, and its pair, 1458 was one of the last MU's that I saw and noticed with the old analog speedo gauge. That was fun to watch!

Jtgshu wrote:Oh yea, and its pair, 1458 was one of the last MU's that I saw and noticed with the old analog speedo gauge. That was fun to watch!

Yep, I remember walking to the vestibule and watching the speedo hit 105 mph between New Brunswick and Princeton Jct before the rebuild. Those were the days!

When I'm back on the Newark pretty soon, I'll keep an eye out for it.

Analog speedo gauge? What a chance I missed!

Yes indeed, in every cab vestibule.

In every vestibule? So far the ones I have seen are digital.

Sorry, meant to render that to mean past tense.

Jtgshu wrote:THATS the car number I was trying to think of a few weeks back -

Bigc mentioned somehting that when the A3's were rebuilt, the first few were actually renumbered. that was the car that I thought of when he mentioned that. It does look like a 3XXX, but i could never make out the other numbers, and trust me, Ive looked up close (climbed up on the seats to get closer)

Oh yea, and its pair, 1458 was one of the last MU's that I saw and noticed with the old analog speedo gauge. That was fun to watch!

Good work, guys. I thought they were either 7000-7001 or 3000-3001. Couldn't quite remember. Had them on one of the first test trains between Sanfords and Harrison. ABB was adjusting the blend of the blended brakes and things like that. NJT bought a whole bunch of lead weights to use as simulated "passengers" for the testing and the price of lead actually shot up(no pun intended) during that time. Transit actually made money when they sold off the lead at the completion of the tests!!

hsr_fan wrote:

Jtgshu wrote:Oh yea, and its pair, 1458 was one of the last MU's that I saw and noticed with the old analog speedo gauge. That was fun to watch!

Yep, I remember walking to the vestibule and watching the speedo hit 105 mph between New Brunswick and Princeton Jct before the rebuild. Those were the days!

Yup!! I remember viewing the speedo read 105mph between Nwk and NYP back in '81.

IIRc, i think Arrow 3 #1448 and #1449 have the same lettering as #1459 and #1458

are they all related?

Some Arrows have the bold lettering while others don't. I haven't noticed any type of pattern as to which do and which do not though. Is there any reason why some have the bold numbers?

Linking to transit383's question, do other bold-faced numbered cars have the analog speed gauge? And did they have former numbering also as in the #1459 'family'?

No MU's (or at least that I'm aware of) currently in service on NJ Transit currently have an anolog speedo. All were changed to digital during the rebuild.

I think they had their analogs through the rebuild, but were replaced with digital speedos as time when on, major shop work, or even problems with the speedo units or cab signal units.

But there were a few analogs floating around until relative recently, probably about 2 years ago......1478 was the last one I saw. They are all gone now, with the speedo/cab signal units replaced with the "MDU" screen or whatever the fancy name is now for the computer screen with the speed and cabsignals on it!!!! :D