Farewell M2 Special?

With the upcoming retirement of the M2 fleet does anybody know if there will be a Farewell M2 Special like they had with the M1s over on the LIRR.

don't you think its a bit premature since first M-8's are still not in service ??

andre wrote:With the upcoming retirement of the M2 fleet does anybody know if there will be a Farewell M2 Special like they had with the M1s over on the LIRR.

If there was such a trip planned, why would it be secret?

Yes, you can by your tickets now at www.ancientcrappycars.com!!

The M-1As didn't get any special sendoff though.

yea don't count on that...ride the New Haven line more if you want to get nostalgic

Otto Vondrak wrote:

andre wrote:With the upcoming retirement of the M2 fleet does anybody know if there will be a Farewell M2 Special like they had with the M1s over on the LIRR.

If there was such a trip planned, why would it be secret?

who said anything about such a thing being a secret, i was just wondering with the eventual retirement of the M2's would there be a possibility farewell special


(also off topic, how would a museum go about acquiring an M2 pair for preservation)

Have the Museum's acquisition manager write a letter to cars owner, in this case CDOT

They're not going anywhere for quite some time. Logically, the M2/4/6 cars have to be phased out together, since the 4's and 6's are triplets, and that's not going to happen for a couple of years even if they get enough M8's to completely replace the older cars.

The other problem is that they have nowhere to run that's special, other than maybe up the Lower Hudson or Lower Harlem, since they can't go North of NHV, as they don't have 25kV or ACSES capability, and they can't go south of New Rochelle on the corridor since they can't run on 25hz power, and they would have a collision with the PRR third rail as well. They're pretty much a captive fleet, unlike the FL-9's that could/can run basically anywhere that's not NHV-BOS on the NEC.

you can have as many farewell to M-2 trips as you want from now till cars retirement.
for schedules see MTA.org and http://as0.mta.info/mnr/schedules/sched_form.cfm
great thing here is the trips come at a bargain price and have real commuters for props and photo run by 's.

I have to say this discussion amuses me a bit since some M2-4-6's are likely to be in service for a while to come --- much as some New Haven "washboard" MUs remained in service until some time in 1976, about 3 years after the first M-2s debuted. Planning for an "M-2 wake" this early is a little bit like the practice observed by some of my Irish-American relatives who actually had a cemetery headstone made, and their name engraved on it, years before their deaths!

Tom Curtin wrote:I have to say this discussion amuses me a bit since some M2-4-6's are likely to be in service for a while to come --- much as some New Haven "washboard" MUs remained in service until some time in 1976, about 3 years after the first M-2s debuted. Planning for an "M-2 wake" this early is a little bit like the practice observed by some of my Irish-American relatives who actually had a cemetery headstone made, and their name engraved on it, years before their deaths!

I agree that this is way premature. As for cemetery gravestones, It is not at all uncommon for a grave stone to be placed long before the death occurs. My family did this both in Connecticut and in New York State on both my mother's side and my father's side of the family. Sometimes one stone for two graves or the family wants to stones to match and age together.
I agree with "Dutch" get your rides on these cars on a daily basis as much as you want now and for the forseeable future.
Noel Weaver

After having ridden and/or operated them for most of their service life, I wouldn't bother riding an "Farewell To The M2s" fan trip. But, I am counting the days until they are retired.

It is difficult to imagine why one would want to have such a trip, but then I remember mourning the passing of the 4400s, and I'm sure that there people then who had no nostalgia for them, since they were still getting over the passing of the old green MUTs, and the open enders, and the flatbottoms. Just depends on your own personal perspective and hostory.

Like I said : ride them while you can, no extra pay for special tickets and take plenty of pictures.
Fantrips are usually detrimental to taking good pictures as there are usually other railfans getting in your way.
There is no special photo ops as the M series have limited operating territory.
Enjoy them now in their natural habitat with native commutters trown in for effect.