Passenger Trains > BART laboratory cars

I recently stumbled across some information on 3 laboratory cars used by BART (the Bay Area Rapid Transit District in the San Francisco - Oakland Bay Area of California) starting in 1965 to test components and subassemblies for the future production cars.

I had never heard of these and I was fascinated by their story. The contract for the three cars ("numbered" A, B and C) was awarded to Budd, but they were reportedly built under subcontract by the Western Pacific Railroad at their Sacramento Shops.

Does anyone have any photos or info on these cars? How long were they used? I know they ran on the initial test track in Concord, CA, but did they run on any of the rest of the system? What happened to them? How were they transported? (I'll bet trucked, but I'm holding out hope the SN Detour picked them up in Sacramento and hauled them to Concord on flat cars)

Found one photo on-line: http://www.all-transit.com/Photo-Gallery/photos/BART/bart-71.JPG

The photo shows car C, reportedly the first car released by the WP and the first powered vehicle to run on the BART test track.

TIA

Z

I know I've seen a picture of an F unit delivering a loaded rail train to Concord, think it was here on Trainorders. Hadn't heard about the laboratory cars, that's interesting.

Nathan

atsf121 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I know I've seen a picture of an F unit delivering
> a loaded rail train to Concord, think it was here
> on Trainorders. Hadn't heard about the laboratory
> cars, that's interesting.
>
> Nathan


Yeah. The Sacramento Northern line was used to bring in a lot of the rail and some other materials for the BART test track. Some info here on Garth Groff's SN website: http://people.virginia.edu/~ggg9y/ribbon.html

The WP seems to have had a long history with BART. I have been told that the railroad's initial tests of concrete ties were done to evaluate them for the BART system, and BART purchased property along abandoned and active lines of both the WP and SN. And then there are those weird laboratory cars.

Any other connections anyone knows about?

Z

For anyone who is really curious about the building of BART, the book for you is "BART at Mid-Point" by the late Harre Demoro. It was published in 1967 as "Interurbans Special 31". Some may have considered the book to be "jumping the gun", but in 1967, after decades of grim news in the electric railway field, this was the first "glad tidings" for West Coast juicefans since the SF Muni "N" line opened in 1928. The book has photos of all three "lab cars", and lots of views of the contruction progress. Needless to say, it's long out of print, but copies turn up at railfan swap meets and used book stores.

I just checked Amazon--there's a soft-cover edition going for $30.00 and a hard-cover for about $125. I probably bought my copy for $4 give or take a buck, but that was back in the 60's.

I do remember the cars well. We moved to Walnut Creek in 1965, largely on the strength of BART's projection of being up and running to the City by 1967 or so, as I recall. We know that didn't happen!

I never photographed them. But the first elevated trackage was constructed in the Walnut Creek-Concord area as I recall, and the cars were frequent shuttlers and on view a lot. For some reason, I remember the 'C' car the most. Were they different colors on the ends? I seem to recall that too. I was just beginning to be bitten by the rail bug, so I never really grabbed a camera for something that didn't really 'count'.