I remember and miss the older F40s that MBTA operated from 1980 until 2015. Even though they were screamers because for the need for their engines to rev much higher than other locomotives and be able to provide HEP for the passenger coaches to power lights and heating/air conditioning, I still miss them. I hope 1013 can be restored and preserved in a museum because the F40PH is a big part of the MBTA’s history, are really reliable and are well loved by every rail fan in North America young and old by their cool design and awesome sounds (this includes the K5LA air horn, e-bells, steel cast bells, mechanical steel bells and the sounds they make when they accelerate and idle at stations. Given take that some units are still running today 47 years after first entering revenue service in 1977, like Chicago’s Metra in Illinois who still has their units in regular passenger service to this day.
Anyone else remember and miss the good old days of the commuter rail: MBB cab cars, F40PH screamers, GP40MCs with their original bells and them being on the south side, non-rebuilt Kawasakis and F40PH-2Cs. Waaa, I miss them all. 😢😭
5:10, WHAT A TREAT, 1811 Vets Car. I saw it a couple times in recent months on the Newburyport/Rockport Line. There’s another Rotem that wears a similar wrap, 846.
@samstranghorwitz true that, and thank you very much. @@xavierkunzavi5209 most 1600s series cab cars (CTC-1Bs) have been pulled from service since the time of this upload and will most likely not be seen operating again.
In 2011-14 MBTA leased five of MARC commuter rail’s old GP40WH-2 units to bridge the gap until the 20 new HSPs arrived by 2013. But, after they arrived on MBTA property from Maryland, only three out of five were fit for service. Of the two others, one was returned to Motive Power at no charge and another was being kept for spare parts, at a price to be negotiated. They was speckled with rust and grime, while not new, the 16-year-old locomotives were newer than the T’s other locomotives, more than half of which dated to the 1970s and nearly all of which were at or past the manufacturer’s recommended lifespan of 25 years. The T logo was placed next to the ghosted slogan “Maryland With Pride,”near where the General Manager, Richard Davey placed the T logo after stripping off the MARC one. Even with the T logo there, faint hints of it could still be seen. After GM Davey applied the T decal, the locomotive made its maiden passenger run pulling a five-coach local train, the 11:20 am departure to Newburyport. MARC phased out the GP40s for newer MP36s that Motive Power built for them same as the MBTA’s new engine order of HSP46s, costing $240 million and delivered to the T between 2013 and 2015. On March 23, 2011, the dingy-looking by functional new “pre-owned”locomotives that the T acquired from MARC of Maryland, backed into North Station that morning and GM Davey applied a T decal and officially placed the engine in service, hailing it as needed help for the beleaguered commuter rail. The T leased them for $300 million apiece per day. The T leased the engines from Idaho-based principal locomotive manufacturer, Motive-Power, Incorporated of Boise. In March 2011, the T began searching for temporary engines that winter during a particularly poor season for the commuter rail, with more than one out of every four trains delayed in January and February. The 18 most decrepit locomotives in the fleet back in 2011, were the F40PHs and they were blamed for more than half of the delays caused by mechanical failure and about half of all commuter rail delays were blamed for that also. The engines leased were built by Morrison-Knudsen of Hornell, NY in 1995 by a corporate predecessor to MotivePower Inc. the T payed another $8.7 million atop that sum to a team of consultants, including Parsons Brinckerhoff, to serve as its representative and provided quality assurance on the deal. The red stripes of MARC were still in place, against a blotchy gray background. The 16-year-old locomotives were newer than all but two of the MBTA’s then 82-engine fleet. The five old GP40WH-2 locomotives arrived in Worcester earlier that month, the T was not quite sure what it would get. After the T had a chance to “kick the tires,” three were deemed fit for service, Davey said; of the other two, one was sent back to MotivePower at no charge and another is being kept for spare parts, at a price to be negotiated. The other locomotives are stored in the deep forest/woods in Maryland, one was rebuilt to run on CSX’s track geometry train and eight were rebuilt into MP32PH-Q locomotives for Central Florida’s Sun Rail commuter rail running between DeBary in Volusia County and Poinciana in Osceola County. The 49-mile route includes 16 stations in four counties, including four in Orlando, between 2013 and 2017. One GP40WH-2 unit, #68, was retained by MARC for non-revenue work use or rescue duty.
Anyone remember the long extinct 300 and 1300 series coaches. Rebuilt from 300s to 200s and CTC-1s were rebuilt to BTC-1Cs. 305 and 315 were wrecked in the Back Bay train collision on 12/12/1990 and scrapped at M-K as part of the 1995-96 Pullman rebuild program. 1301 was wrecked on August 11, 1981 and scrapped in 1986. 303 was wrecked from an unknown cause and scrapped in 1995.
I always wondered why the 1300s were rebuilt into 200s. Did MBTA need more blind coaches and they didn’t need so many cab cars? I wish Pullman still existed, sadly it doesn’t anymore. They were built in 1978-80 so they are definitely the oldest blind coaches the T still has as of 2024, even though they were rebuilt in 1995-96 as part of the Pullman rebuild program.
That was an extra equipment move out of the Newburyport layover. That crew had been tasked with moving around/swapping the places of several sets of equipment on that weekend
Sad to see the CTC-1Bs go, but nothing lasts forever and you have to eventually transition to more modern technologies as the old ones from the 1980s and 1990s need to be upgraded and aren’t suitable for the 2020s. They had a good 35-year long career with MBTA. Nobody knew, myself included, that they would be retired in 2024 and many people didn’t think that either when they saw them being delivered back in the early 1990s. The ones I can remember seeing are 1625, 1630, 1636 and 1649 last summer. The last summer that the comets would be running in service.
The k cars were just rebuilt so they’ll probably be retired in 5-10 more years minimum, just my guess. They received overhauls by Alstom between 2015 and 2020.
Somebody told me recently that the MBTA was starting to discuss about replacements for the kawasakis, but I’m pretty sure they were just joking, they’ll still be here for 10+ more years at least.
To me, they can distinguished by the headlights and windows being in different positions. There are plenty of small things as well, with the CTC-4s being decades older
Yep, very true. The CTC-4s were built in 1990-91 and the CTC-5s were built in 2012-2015, so the -5s are roughly 20-25 years newer than the -4s. Another difference I noticed is the -5s are silver and almost reflective, while the -4s are light grey and another is the bar placement around the ditch lights. On the -5s it’s more spaced out and on the -4s it’s more smooshed and closer together. I’m sure there’s other differences between the two. But those are the two most noticeable differences I can think of. The original order of Rotems are already starting to look road worn and some of them are only 10 years old. If equipment is going to get like that after only 10 years, then we have a problem here. Railcars should start to get road worn at nearly 20 years of age, not 10, that’s still very young for a railcar especially in the U.S. giving they have a 25-30 year operating lifespan, but can relieve a mid-life rebuild at 20 and get 40-45 years of use, but if they don’t get one, they’ll re retired after 25 years of service.
Another thing I find surprising about the CTC-4s is that they were bought around the same time as the CTC-1Bs and BTC-1Bs. The 600 and 1600 Bomb cars are barely newer than the original Kawasakis. The first Bomb car arrived in 1989 and all of them were delivered by early 1991, with the last of the first 50 K cars arriving by November 1991. All the 1700 cabs were delivered by April 1991. On October 28, 1990, cab car 1648 was wrecked, so MBTA ordered another Bomb cab, 1652 and that was its replacement; delivered in late 1991. The 1648 was a parts source for 16 years until it was brought into the BET in early April 2006 to have important parts removed and be stripped, then it was scrapped outside as part of the CRASP program. Surprisingly, if you look very closely in the BET yard, you can see remnants of 1648 lying beside the tracks and its front number board. Hope you can understand me. Until 2020, the Pullman 200s were the only single-level coaches to be fully rebuilt from 300s and 1300s to 200s CTCs rebuilt to BTCs. I’d say the Bombs would’ve been better rebuild candidates as they were able to hold up for 35 years without any signs of serious wear/tear and corrosion issues, unlike the Messerschmitts and had intermittent rounds of (at best) maintenance throughout their operating lifespan. It’s sad that they deteriorated so rapidly and some people called them a “unicorn fleet” as they were the most unreliable of the single-level coaches. But, I like their big windows, the MassDOT blue seats inside and their proper 2x2 style seating arrangement. Also, engineers had complained in recent years about bad smells from the bad toilets getting in the cab area. The MBBs were the oldest control trailer coaches in the fleet, with the 200s being the oldest blind coaches, the Bombs were second, followed by Kawasakis and lastly the Rotems which are the youngest especially with the 83 new ones just finishing up delivery. Some of the Bomb cars were also built in 1988-89 and are about the same age as the MBBs. I don’t know why some people think the Bombs are older than the Messerschmitts. The Bombs are also only about 1-3 years younger than the MBBs, with the Messerschmitts a decade newer than the Pullmans.
What’s with 1052 looking so clean, I thought the engines are dirty and have soot on top in literally 4-5 months after re-entering revenue. The 1052 has been back from rebuild for more than two years at this point. Not one patch of dirt on it, impressive. 😮 I’ve seen some recent rebuilds that have been returned last year like 1070 for example a few months ago and its already dirty and needs a long hot soapy bath and scrub, yuck. 🤮 Looks like it had a long fun mud bath, Lol. 😂
Yes, believe it or not the MBTA has been cleaning more of their equipment recently. Many F40s running nowadays have that shine again, just like when they were fresh back from rebuilt
Jesus, the e-bells on the Geeps sound very weird and unusual. They don’t fit together. E-bells are newer technology found on the F40 rebuilds, the Rotems, Kawasakis, CTC-1B 1635 before retirement and all but three GP40MCs. A modern bell on a 1970s diesel passenger locomotive, yuck.🤮 But, luckily we still have 1127, 1134 and MassDOT rebuild 1136 with their original bells.
1053 look how dirty it is, yucky. 🤮 MBTA clean your engines better. Actually, it didn’t look as bad as other units I’ve seen recently as some others were almost completely covered in dirt and soot.
I remember and miss the older F40s that MBTA operated from 1980 until 2015. Even though they were screamers because for the need for their engines to rev much higher than other locomotives and be able to provide HEP for the passenger coaches to power lights and heating/air conditioning, I still miss them. I hope 1013 can be restored and preserved in a museum because the F40PH is a big part of the MBTA’s history, are really reliable and are well loved by every rail fan in North America young and old by their cool design and awesome sounds (this includes the K5LA air horn, e-bells, steel cast bells, mechanical steel bells and the sounds they make when they accelerate and idle at stations. Given take that some units are still running today 47 years after first entering revenue service in 1977, like Chicago’s Metra in Illinois who still has their units in regular passenger service to this day.
Anyone else remember and miss the good old days of the commuter rail: MBB cab cars, F40PH screamers, GP40MCs with their original bells and them being on the south side, non-rebuilt Kawasakis and F40PH-2Cs. Waaa, I miss them all. 😢😭
5:10, WHAT A TREAT, 1811 Vets Car. I saw it a couple times in recent months on the Newburyport/Rockport Line. There’s another Rotem that wears a similar wrap, 846.
I remember when the Pullman commuter rail cars started in service they started at South Station with the early F - 40’s
Rip comet cars ya had a good run. Great video spike.
Wdym?
@samstranghorwitz true that, and thank you very much.
@@xavierkunzavi5209 most 1600s series cab cars (CTC-1Bs) have been pulled from service since the time of this upload and will most likely not be seen operating again.
@@rail_spike_productions oh
In 2011-14 MBTA leased five of MARC commuter rail’s old GP40WH-2 units to bridge the gap until the 20 new HSPs arrived by 2013. But, after they arrived on MBTA property from Maryland, only three out of five were fit for service. Of the two others, one was returned to Motive Power at no charge and another was being kept for spare parts, at a price to be negotiated. They was speckled with rust and grime, while not new, the 16-year-old locomotives were newer than the T’s other locomotives, more than half of which dated to the 1970s and nearly all of which were at or past the manufacturer’s recommended lifespan of 25 years. The T logo was placed next to the ghosted slogan “Maryland With Pride,”near where the General Manager, Richard Davey placed the T logo after stripping off the MARC one. Even with the T logo there, faint hints of it could still be seen. After GM Davey applied the T decal, the locomotive made its maiden passenger run pulling a five-coach local train, the 11:20 am departure to Newburyport. MARC phased out the GP40s for newer MP36s that Motive Power built for them same as the MBTA’s new engine order of HSP46s, costing $240 million and delivered to the T between 2013 and 2015. On March 23, 2011, the dingy-looking by functional new “pre-owned”locomotives that the T acquired from MARC of Maryland, backed into North Station that morning and GM Davey applied a T decal and officially placed the engine in service, hailing it as needed help for the beleaguered commuter rail. The T leased them for $300 million apiece per day. The T leased the engines from Idaho-based principal locomotive manufacturer, Motive-Power, Incorporated of Boise. In March 2011, the T began searching for temporary engines that winter during a particularly poor season for the commuter rail, with more than one out of every four trains delayed in January and February. The 18 most decrepit locomotives in the fleet back in 2011, were the F40PHs and they were blamed for more than half of the delays caused by mechanical failure and about half of all commuter rail delays were blamed for that also. The engines leased were built by Morrison-Knudsen of Hornell, NY in 1995 by a corporate predecessor to MotivePower Inc. the T payed another $8.7 million atop that sum to a team of consultants, including Parsons Brinckerhoff, to serve as its representative and provided quality assurance on the deal. The red stripes of MARC were still in place, against a blotchy gray background. The 16-year-old locomotives were newer than all but two of the MBTA’s then 82-engine fleet. The five old GP40WH-2 locomotives arrived in Worcester earlier that month, the T was not quite sure what it would get. After the T had a chance to “kick the tires,” three were deemed fit for service, Davey said; of the other two, one was sent back to MotivePower at no charge and another is being kept for spare parts, at a price to be negotiated. The other locomotives are stored in the deep forest/woods in Maryland, one was rebuilt to run on CSX’s track geometry train and eight were rebuilt into MP32PH-Q locomotives for Central Florida’s Sun Rail commuter rail running between DeBary in Volusia County and Poinciana in Osceola County. The 49-mile route includes 16 stations in four counties, including four in Orlando, between 2013 and 2017. One GP40WH-2 unit, #68, was retained by MARC for non-revenue work use or rescue duty.
Excelente vídeo muy bueno un saludo 👋🏻 😊
And to you as well! Thanks again
Anyone remember the long extinct 300 and 1300 series coaches. Rebuilt from 300s to 200s and CTC-1s were rebuilt to BTC-1Cs. 305 and 315 were wrecked in the Back Bay train collision on 12/12/1990 and scrapped at M-K as part of the 1995-96 Pullman rebuild program. 1301 was wrecked on August 11, 1981 and scrapped in 1986. 303 was wrecked from an unknown cause and scrapped in 1995.
Yeah for sure - plus, some 1300s still operate today as the 200s
I always wondered why the 1300s were rebuilt into 200s. Did MBTA need more blind coaches and they didn’t need so many cab cars? I wish Pullman still existed, sadly it doesn’t anymore. They were built in 1978-80 so they are definitely the oldest blind coaches the T still has as of 2024, even though they were rebuilt in 1995-96 as part of the Pullman rebuild program.
Yes, you’re correct
3:40, Wait, why didn’t the train stop?
That was an extra equipment move out of the Newburyport layover. That crew had been tasked with moving around/swapping the places of several sets of equipment on that weekend
Sad to see the CTC-1Bs go, but nothing lasts forever and you have to eventually transition to more modern technologies as the old ones from the 1980s and 1990s need to be upgraded and aren’t suitable for the 2020s. They had a good 35-year long career with MBTA. Nobody knew, myself included, that they would be retired in 2024 and many people didn’t think that either when they saw them being delivered back in the early 1990s. The ones I can remember seeing are 1625, 1630, 1636 and 1649 last summer. The last summer that the comets would be running in service.
Are you going to talk about the kawasakis
The k cars were just rebuilt so they’ll probably be retired in 5-10 more years minimum, just my guess. They received overhauls by Alstom between 2015 and 2020.
Somebody told me recently that the MBTA was starting to discuss about replacements for the kawasakis, but I’m pretty sure they were just joking, they’ll still be here for 10+ more years at least.
@@ericschwartz3559true they should of also rebuilded one of the ctc flat cars
@samstranghorwitz 1647 would’ve been a good candidate for rebuild, thinking it’s the flat cab control coach that refuses to die.
I can’t tell the difference between the CTC-4s and CTC-5s, they both look very similar looking to me. What are the differences between the two?
To me, they can distinguished by the headlights and windows being in different positions. There are plenty of small things as well, with the CTC-4s being decades older
Yep, very true. The CTC-4s were built in 1990-91 and the CTC-5s were built in 2012-2015, so the -5s are roughly 20-25 years newer than the -4s. Another difference I noticed is the -5s are silver and almost reflective, while the -4s are light grey and another is the bar placement around the ditch lights. On the -5s it’s more spaced out and on the -4s it’s more smooshed and closer together. I’m sure there’s other differences between the two. But those are the two most noticeable differences I can think of. The original order of Rotems are already starting to look road worn and some of them are only 10 years old. If equipment is going to get like that after only 10 years, then we have a problem here. Railcars should start to get road worn at nearly 20 years of age, not 10, that’s still very young for a railcar especially in the U.S. giving they have a 25-30 year operating lifespan, but can relieve a mid-life rebuild at 20 and get 40-45 years of use, but if they don’t get one, they’ll re retired after 25 years of service.
I mean receive not relieve. Typo error on my end, sorry.
No worries, I understand what you’re saying
Another thing I find surprising about the CTC-4s is that they were bought around the same time as the CTC-1Bs and BTC-1Bs. The 600 and 1600 Bomb cars are barely newer than the original Kawasakis. The first Bomb car arrived in 1989 and all of them were delivered by early 1991, with the last of the first 50 K cars arriving by November 1991. All the 1700 cabs were delivered by April 1991. On October 28, 1990, cab car 1648 was wrecked, so MBTA ordered another Bomb cab, 1652 and that was its replacement; delivered in late 1991. The 1648 was a parts source for 16 years until it was brought into the BET in early April 2006 to have important parts removed and be stripped, then it was scrapped outside as part of the CRASP program. Surprisingly, if you look very closely in the BET yard, you can see remnants of 1648 lying beside the tracks and its front number board. Hope you can understand me. Until 2020, the Pullman 200s were the only single-level coaches to be fully rebuilt from 300s and 1300s to 200s CTCs rebuilt to BTCs. I’d say the Bombs would’ve been better rebuild candidates as they were able to hold up for 35 years without any signs of serious wear/tear and corrosion issues, unlike the Messerschmitts and had intermittent rounds of (at best) maintenance throughout their operating lifespan. It’s sad that they deteriorated so rapidly and some people called them a “unicorn fleet” as they were the most unreliable of the single-level coaches. But, I like their big windows, the MassDOT blue seats inside and their proper 2x2 style seating arrangement. Also, engineers had complained in recent years about bad smells from the bad toilets getting in the cab area. The MBBs were the oldest control trailer coaches in the fleet, with the 200s being the oldest blind coaches, the Bombs were second, followed by Kawasakis and lastly the Rotems which are the youngest especially with the 83 new ones just finishing up delivery. Some of the Bomb cars were also built in 1988-89 and are about the same age as the MBBs. I don’t know why some people think the Bombs are older than the Messerschmitts. The Bombs are also only about 1-3 years younger than the MBBs, with the Messerschmitts a decade newer than the Pullmans.
4:10, THE LAST ONE, 1647!!!!!
Right you are. I went after that one, as well as the 1636, many times in May
Anyone familiar with the South Shore Line? An interurban railroad between northwest Indiana and Chicago.
What’s with 1052 looking so clean, I thought the engines are dirty and have soot on top in literally 4-5 months after re-entering revenue. The 1052 has been back from rebuild for more than two years at this point. Not one patch of dirt on it, impressive. 😮 I’ve seen some recent rebuilds that have been returned last year like 1070 for example a few months ago and its already dirty and needs a long hot soapy bath and scrub, yuck. 🤮 Looks like it had a long fun mud bath, Lol. 😂
Yes, believe it or not the MBTA has been cleaning more of their equipment recently. Many F40s running nowadays have that shine again, just like when they were fresh back from rebuilt
Jesus, the e-bells on the Geeps sound very weird and unusual. They don’t fit together. E-bells are newer technology found on the F40 rebuilds, the Rotems, Kawasakis, CTC-1B 1635 before retirement and all but three GP40MCs. A modern bell on a 1970s diesel passenger locomotive, yuck.🤮 But, luckily we still have 1127, 1134 and MassDOT rebuild 1136 with their original bells.
I do agree. Unfortunately the 1127 and 1134 are out of service right now, I fear that they may be seeing a bell bell replacement in the coming months
Why are they out of service?
Most likely they are the next in line for a partial rebuild at BET
1053 look how dirty it is, yucky. 🤮 MBTA clean your engines better. Actually, it didn’t look as bad as other units I’ve seen recently as some others were almost completely covered in dirt and soot.
Actually, if you take a look later in the video you will notice that they gave the 1053 a good clean sometime in May