MBTA Loco #1073 Photos (Back Bay Wreck)

Does anyone by chance have pictures of MBCR Train 1073 laying around???

Good luck finding pics of 1073...built 1988...wrecked/scrapped 1990

Yea I know thats the hard part seeing him built.?. But heard that there are pics around when 1073 did get wrecked but who knows!!!

I have a photo (black and white) of 1073 at Ruggles Station before it was wrecked.

I'll post a link to it when I get back from holiday travel.

A nitpick... MBCR owns no equipment, and in any case 1073 was wrecked long before MBCR even came into being.

Here it is:

MBTA F40PH-2C #1073

Photographed on an outbound Needham local (I didn't record which one) at Ruggles Station on November 5, 1990. Just a little over a month later, this locomotive was destroyed in a collision with Amtrak train #66 in the Back Bay Wreck of December 12, 1990.

The only photos of the accident and the carnage of the 1073 that are published are books by Boston Fire Dept Photographer William Noonan not sure of the title off the top of my head. There is a shot or 2 of both wrecks at Back Bay. They are the only ones I know that were ever published.

Well thats all I need is just one picture of 1073, even through he was only around the MBTA for 2 years or less but wasnt 1036 a replacement for him???

MBTA1052 wrote:Well thats all I need is just one picture of 1073, even through he was only around the MBTA for 2 years or less but wasnt 1036 a replacement for him???

Yes Amtrak paid for the 1036 as a replacement for the 1073, originally 2 locomotives were coming to the MBTA in 1993, the 1034 and 1035.

StevieC48 wrote:The only photos of the accident and the carnage of the 1073 that are published are books by Boston Fire Dept Photographer William Noonan not sure of the title off the top of my head. There is a shot or 2 of both wrecks at Back Bay. They are the only ones I know that were ever published.

I think the NTSB had a pic or 2 on there website with the accident report, I remember seeing it quite some time ago. I remember looking at it and asking myself how the heck did the amtrak engineer and trainee survive.

What is the website name that has the picture of the train???

Everyone: I remember that Back Bay wreck back in 1990 for how serious it was-I got both the Boston Herald and Globe in NYC the next day after seeing the news of it on TV. I remember the Herald headline on the cover page ROOKIE ON THE RAILS with a wreck picture.

I recall that it was Amtrak's Night Owl coming north doing 80 in a 30 MPH stretch in the Back Bay Tunnel derailing on the curve into the station crashing into the rear of a stopped MBTA commuter train being pushed by #1073 which was destroyed as most know in the wreck. I feel that engine being on the rear perhaps saved a lot of lives because the human toll would have been far worse if the Night Owl's F40s had struck a cab car instead. I also remember that the crash itself was violent enough to damage the tunnel up above the wreck site.

Other then #1073 I do not recall how much equipment was wrecked in this crash - were there two Amtrak F40s pulling the Night Owl north that morning? It is hard to believe that 19 years have passed since this major wreck. As bad as it was there were NO fatalities as far as I remember.
I kept the clippings and I still have them somewhere...MACTRAXX

Don't know if I still have them, but I had saved the entire Globe and Herald newspapers from that day. At the time, I attended Northeastern University, and if I didn't have an 8:00am class, I'd sometimes catch 902 to South Station to meet up with a friend for breakfast. I had an 8:00am class that day...

Just for the record, the 1073 and its sisters are called LOCOMOTIVES, a TRAIN is a locomotive hauling cars, displaying markers to the rear. We also do not refer to locomotives as HIM, just like a ship, a locomotive is always referred to as HER or SHE.

OK I will do what I can on mentioning Engines, but does anyone having Pics of 1710 currently, because I know that CTC is Out OF Service at BET but any recent changing.

There are pictures of the #1710 on my web site. It has not changed any since those photos have been taken.