Retirements and Disposition of CR Equipment

Coaches 221,225, 500,501,502,505,508,1503 are headed to Hyannis Tuesday night.
Looks like an extra from Readville will bring them to Middleboro layover yard, where
Mass Coastal will pick them up.

D

Any ideas what's going on with those cars? I thought some of those 500's were in service not too long ago, didn't realize that many were retired already.

According to NETransit, the 200s are being converted to bike cars. Those bathroom cars, I believe, are the ones over by Boston Sand and Gravel, I heard there are plans to re-purpose them (whether it's for the T or for someone else, I do not know). They seem to be in pretty good shape, as in too good to scrap.

CRail wrote:According to NETransit, the 200s are being converted to bike cars. Those bathroom cars, I believe, are the ones over by Boston Sand and Gravel, I heard there are plans to re-purpose them (whether it's for the T or for someone else, I do not know). They seem to be in pretty good shape, as in too good to scrap.

I don't know about that. MassDOT's talking about dispositions potentially going to CDOT as extras for NHHS service so they can serve north of Springfield on the Conn River, but it's very unlikely the MBB's are going to work for that. CDOT's New Haven shops that maintain the Shore Line East equipment and a lot of the Metro North equipment are well-qualified on the Bombardier Shoreliner series cars, which are virtually identical to our Bombardiers (and a few iterations of the NJT Comets). But some Rotem options have to get exercised before any of the BBD's are up for disposal. They probably aren't going to want the MBB's, probably not even a "best of the rest" where the ones with non-rotted floors are saved from the scrapper's torch. In general they need a much more substantial rehab than the BBD's to be good for another 5-10 years of continued service, and even if MassDOT paid for that it's not so simple when they'll be sent over to an entirely different operator in an entirely different state. CDOT's preferences matter if they're the ones running it, and I can't see why they'd find the MBB's an attractive prospect over the BBD's. So I wonder if the officials floating this idea are either unaware that no good rehab candidates become available until/unless some Rotem options get exercised. Or if they're just jumping the gun way too early.

CDOT's definitely a candidate for Geep disposal, unless CDOT wants no part of the quirky "MC" mods. Again...no wishful thinking until we know what that service's operator's preferences are. They may not want to saddle themselves with more aging Geeps and instead prefer picking up more P40's from NJT or Amtrak since they already run those.


I could see a handful of best-of-the-rest MBB's sticking around as-is for Flyer extras. Although I have to wonder if them sitting in storage the rest of the year is really going to help their reliability. And if the Flyer needs more seating capacity they're better off making it an all- bi-level train.


We'll see. Other than these couple quickie conversions for extra specialty cars that don't really make a difference to the rest of the fleet numbers I think we need to see how the Rotems round into shape. Everything hinges on whether they can pick up some options. Including balancing the number of restroom-equipped coaches fleet-wide. Replacing the MBB's 1:1 is a net reduction because the Rotem cab cars don't have restrooms while the MBB's did. Some more blind coach options would be needed to balance the numbers back up to par. It would be a pain in the butt on many fronts if they had to say "No mas" after the base order.

CRail wrote:According to NETransit, the 200s are being converted to bike cars. Those bathroom cars, I believe, are the ones over by Boston Sand and Gravel, I heard there are plans to re-purpose them (whether it's for the T or for someone else, I do not know). They seem to be in pretty good shape, as in too good to scrap.

The four cars in Tower A are not part of this move. One of the two cars(1503) that was shoved out with the RDC cars is though.

Not sure if this is exactly the right place for this (don't really know where else to put it), but rumor has it that the work train will be heading to Fitchburg tomorrow (Wednesday) to finally retrieve the 1009 and tow it back to BET.

I didn't realize the 1009 never made it back to BET. Is it still on the station track or did they drag it to the yard?

I believe it was dragged to the yard pretty quickly after the wreck. I didn't realize either (until I saw this report) that it was still there, however.

TrainManTy wrote:I didn't realize the 1009 never made it back to BET. Is it still on the station track or did they drag it to the yard?

Still on track 5 in Fitchburg yard, it still isn't in condition to be towed back to Boston.

sery2831 wrote:The four cars in Tower A are not part of this move. One of the two cars(1503) that was shoved out with the RDC cars is though.

Well then that brings back the original question... what are they going to the Cape for?

Isn't 502 the one with the new restroom? I recall seeing that car in service as recently as Dec...also did seem to be in rough shape, although that says nothing about its mechanical condition.

8th Notch wrote:

TrainManTy wrote:I didn't realize the 1009 never made it back to BET. Is it still on the station track or did they drag it to the yard?

Still on track 5 in Fitchburg yard, it still isn't in condition to be towed back to Boston.

I was gonna ask what happened to it, but then i used the search function,, all I have to say is... HOLY H*LL.

octr202 wrote:Isn't 502 the one with the new restroom? I recall seeing that car in service as recently as Dec...also did seem to be in rough shape, although that says nothing about its mechanical condition.

The 502 was cut out of a 7 car set over the weekend or Monday morning. It was in the North Side 7 car set 1060/1640 last week. The 1504 was put in it's place.

The 1009 is scheduled to be picked up by the Northside Work Train Wednesday.

d

The mechanical dept must have done some work on the 1009, cause I am told it barely made it to East Fitchburg Yard!