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  • Favourite car type

  • Discussion related to DC area passenger rail services from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, MD. Includes Light Rail and Baltimore Subway.
Discussion related to DC area passenger rail services from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, MD. Includes Light Rail and Baltimore Subway.

Moderators: mtuandrew, therock, Robert Paniagua

What's your favourite subway car?

Rohr 1000 #1
25
38%
Breda 2000 #2
4
6%
Breda 3000 #3
5
8%
Breda 4000 #4
7
11%
CAF-IND 5000 #5
24
37%
 #611783  by Robert Paniagua
 
so that will likely mean that the next order of cvars following the 7000s will have to be jumped to the 9000-series sequence numbers, translation: 9000 cars-9K, Type #8 Cars, rather than 8K type #8, since the 8K sequence is taken by recycled Type #1 Cars
 #611975  by WMATAGMOAGH
 
Robert Paniagua wrote:so that will likely mean that the next order of cvars following the 7000s will have to be jumped to the 9000-series sequence numbers, translation: 9000 cars-9K, Type #8 Cars, rather than 8K type #8, since the 8K sequence is taken by recycled Type #1 Cars
 #612045  by Sand Box John
 
"Robert Paniagua"
so that will likely mean that the next order of cvars following the 7000s will have to be jumped to the 9000-series sequence numbers, translation: 9000 cars-9K, Type #8 Cars, rather than 8K type #8, since the 8K sequence is taken by recycled Type #1 Cars


WMATA might end using a numbering schema similar to the schema used to number busses.

Method to the Madness: WMATA Bus Numbering

My guess is the 8k cars will be retired and replaced by other cars in the fleet that will allow 8000 to be used for the next series after 7000. The cars that will replace the 8k cars will likely be renumber upwards within the existing numbering schema. (As an example 2XXX cars would be renumbered 25XX)

The 7 k cars are going to be procured in 4 production blocks much like the Breda cars were. However I don't WMATA will span the numbering the same way.

1st block of 126 cars 7000-7125
2nd block of 130 cars 7200-7329
3rd block of 300 cars 7400-7799
4th block of 90 cars 7800-7889
 #638556  by al-Gaheem
 
Never really noticed much differences aside from the interior. And even the interior differences are minor. Ultimately regardless of what series car I'm in, I enjoy riding Metro.
 #639312  by tommyboy6181
 
I've got to give the nod to the Rohrs. I remember them as the very first Metro car type I ever rode back when riding the first time in 1996. Also really enjoyed the Bredas before they got rehabbed. I also have ridden the rehabs but still have not gotten an Alstom or a CAF car. That might change in 2 months...
 #652374  by realtype
 
In this order:

1. Breda 2000/3000 rehab
2. Alstom 6000
3. Rohr 1000 (the true "classic")
4. CAF 5000
5. Bombardier/Kawsaki/Alstom 7000
6. Breda 4000 (no exterior speaker, boring interior, badly scratched windows)

It's nice to see the Red Line finally has a decent number of 6K's, although they are way more common on the Green Line, which uses them almost exclusively. Don't know what's on the other 3 lines since I rarely ride them.
 #653412  by SchuminWeb
 
From what I can tell, Orange has a lot of CAFs, and Blue still seems to have the most Rohrs outside the Red Line. The Orange and Green also seem to have a lot of Alstoms on them.

Also, don't count the 4000's out - I don't know what Metro did, but the 4000 windows are clear again.
 #658644  by realtype
 
SchuminWeb wrote:From what I can tell, Orange has a lot of CAFs, and Blue still seems to have the most Rohrs outside the Red Line. The Orange and Green also seem to have a lot of Alstoms on them.

Also, don't count the 4000's out - I don't know what Metro did, but the 4000 windows are clear again.
You're right, I saw a 4000 on the Red Line the other day (for some reason them and the Rohr's are much rarer on the Red Lines these days, when before that's all they seemed to operate), and the windows were crystal clear. It was amazing, but I noticed the windows in the doors (the ones I used anyway) didn't get the same treatment.
 #658687  by SchuminWeb
 
Yeah, the doors on the 4000's are still a bit foggy, but I think it probably has something to do with how the windows are constructed, since I believe the main windows are double-paned with a gap in the middle, and the doors have just a single pane of glass.
 #660007  by tommyboy6181
 
You're right...the door material probably is still the lexan plastic whereas the windows were probably replaced with the single-pane safety glass used on the rehabs and the new cars.

Off topic...I wonder what it would have been like if the Rohrs had choppers from the start instead of cam control. 1 company that did it on a test car for Montreal is Jeumont-Schneider. This on a Rohr would have been interesting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEa-zzlhn2Q
Last edited by tommyboy6181 on Sun Apr 12, 2009 5:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 #660302  by tommyboy6181
 
I would think so too, especially after hearing that for a while. According to Wikipedia, the chopper motor sounds the same as the beginning of Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man." This was 1 of the earliest chopper systems ever produced (back in the late 60's) since it was put on their 1973 Bombardier cars. That was just a random thought to see what the Rohr's would have potentially been like had that been an option.
 #662820  by Mirai Zikasu
 
Those Jeumont Metro cars sound nice, but if you really want a beautiful sounding train, look to Austria as the ÖBB's Taurus locomotives play a scale when they start accelerating. In Austria, the rails are alive with the sound of music.