Official M2 / M4 / M6 Retirement Thread

BuddR32 wrote:but lawyers make anything impossible.

Well as long as the companies keep hiring extremely experienced and good lawyers and as long as lawyer gets paid exorbitant amounts of $ for his services, it's gonna be that way until some miracle happens or someone decides to break from habit. *sigh*

R36 Combine Coach wrote:There's really nothing remarkable about the M-2 Cosmopolitans to be worth honoring. The only historical value is they introduced high platform boarding. They have been in service every day since April 1973.

I disagree. They were the first modern cars on the line, and the first cars bought by a gov't railroad rather than a private railroad for that line. Other than the 4400's, it was the first cars since the stone age for the NH line.

Tadman wrote:

R36 Combine Coach wrote:There's really nothing remarkable about the M-2 Cosmopolitans to be worth honoring. The only historical value is they introduced high platform boarding. They have been in service every day since April 1973.

I disagree. They were the first modern cars on the line, and the first cars bought by a gov't railroad rather than a private railroad for that line. Other than the 4400's, it was the first cars since the stone age for the NH line.

And to add to Mr. Tad's comment above, the mere fact that the M-2s were the backbone of service on one of the country's busiest commuter lines for 40 years gives them a place in railroad history. I don't know whether the hazmat issue can be economically addressed, but from a heritage perspective there certainly should be a role for a pair at the Danbury museum or a similar facility.

There are 2 things that were used on the M-2's which kill off any presevation attempt,Asbestos insulation
on the High Voltage side,and PCB remains in the Main Transformer.
The Scrapping contract with MTA/ConnDOT holds the Scrapper responsable for the Haz-Mat material disposal.

SEPTA has Silverliner II 9001 and a St. Louis Silverliner III on hold and even offered all the Silverliner II and IIIs for sale, so apparently SEPTA has a different policy on HAZMAT. Even so, the older Silverliners may not even be legal to run ever (static display only), since they did not meet FRA (and were under waiver in their final years).

The SL-II's + III's had their main transformers pulled when taken OOS,and disposed of seperately.
The Asbestos in the M-2's is reportly in the Bulkheads and carbody structure near the pan mount point.

What's the status of the cars now?

I saw set running towards GCT so the status is: Still in service

I meant number of cars in service.

M2's have got to be dwindling quickly, I've had the "pleasure" of riding several old sets lately and most of the consists are 4's and 6's. (and I have the luck of sitting in the 6's with their annoying door chime noise), and there's no shortage of cars sitting in CSO's yard in Hartford waiting to be hauled out and sent to the scrapper.

For there not being many of these left, I caught quite a few of them in just one hour at Harrison:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxVeVkm87Co" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Also saw a 12 car set of M2/M4/M6s rolling around on my way out to and back from Harrison.

Fan Railer wrote:For there not being many of these left, I caught quite a few of them in just one hour at Harrison:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxVeVkm87Co" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Also saw a 12 car set of M2/M4/M6s rolling around on my way out to and back from Harrison.

I watched the whole program and it brought back a lot of memories, thank you for providing this interesting program, good job.
Noel Weaver

jackintosh11 wrote:I meant number of cars in service.

115 old cars in service according to latest MTA board meeting minutes, and dwindling by the day. (It doesn't break them down 2's vs 4's vs 6's)

far less, only about 40 or so M-2's left
21 M-4's and 21 M-6 give or take.

DutchRailnut wrote:far less, only about 40 or so M-2's left
21 M-4's and 21 M-6 give or take.

Dunno why but I am surprised that there are more M2s than M4s or M6s in service still.