Have you ever tried to ride an entire system in one day? Were you successful? Were you trying to set any records? Feel free to post your answers in the comments below!
Oren’s Reading List is an occasional feature on The Travelogue in which I share articles that I’ve read that might also be of interest to the readers of this website.
CAF 5085
Location: Rockville Station, Rockville, MD
Operator of Vehicle: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Date of Photo: December 12, 2017
On some subway systems, each line has a dedicated (or nearly dedicated) fleet of cars. For example, you won’t find anything but 1995 Stock on the Northern Line in London. Or in New York, seeing something other than an R62A on the 1 train is a notable event. However, in Washington, DC, this generally has not been the case. Except for a period when all the 2000 Series Breda cars were assigned to the Red Line shortly after their delivery, WMATA has put just about every car on every line, especially when it was “bellying” the 1000 Series cars and later the 4000 Series cars between 2009 and 2017. Now that those car types have been retired as of last summer, WMATA has decided to assign certain cars to certain lines with generally few exceptions. In the case of the Red Line, this means seeing anything other than 3000 Series Breda Rehabs or 7000 Series Kawasakis is now a notable event. One of those moments is captured here, when CAF 5085 made it on to the Red Line in December 2017.
Do you like “predictability” in your transit car assignments when transitfanning, or is it more fun when any type of train or bus might show up?
For more photos of WMATA CAF 5000 Series cars, please click here.
As I have written before, as someone who grew up in the DC area and has always considered the 1000 Series trains to be my favorites, this is a significant moment in the region’s transportation history. Once the 1000s were relegated to the middle of train consists after the Fort Totten crash, only when a 4000 Series car was at the head end of a train did it feel like I was on the Metrorail that I grew up with, complete with yellow and orange interior colors and the buzzing of the DC motors on the Breda cars. Those days have been over since July, and are truly over as of yesterday.
Photo caption: Breda 4052 (left) and Rohr 1124 at Gallery Place. As of yesterday, all of the 1000 Series and 4000 Series railcars have been removed from WMATA property to be scrapped. Photo taken February 16, 2004.
New Flyer XN40 2959
Location: Columbia Pike at Joyce Street, Arlington, VA
Operator of Vehicle: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Date of Photo: July 4, 2017
When compressed natural gas (CNG) buses made their entry in to US transit fleets, the buses were notable for the large hump on their tops. This hump was for the fuel tanks. Many agencies highlighted the fact these buses were running on compressed natural gas as opposed to diesel, and some even used special paint schemes on these buses to draw attention to that fact. This included WMATA’s first CNG buses, the New Flyer C40LF buses ordered in 2002. However, the fuel tanks on these must be replaced after 15 years, often resulting in the bus being retired at that time. As bus designs have evolved, the fuel tanks have been incorporated in to the bus design in less obvious ways and agencies have moved away from highlighting their CNG vehicles. As a result, there is little indication to most passengers boarding one of these newer buses that they are boarding a bus powered by CNG. As someone who enjoys seeing variety in bus fleets, I am sorry to see the special liveries for alternative fuel vehicles such as hybrid and CNG buses. That said, it is remarkable to see how new CNG buses, such as this New Flyer XN40 that replaced WMATA’s original C40LF buses, now look so much like their diesel counterparts. Do you like when alternative fuel vehicles get special paint schemes? Post your thoughts in the comments below!
For more photos of WMATA’s New Flyer XN40 buses, please click here.
Flxible Metro-B 9436
Location: F Street, NW at 15th Street, NW, Washington, DC
Operator of Vehicle: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Date of Photo: July 4, 2005
The Rail Photo of the Month post for this month and a conversation I had earlier this week with a fellow transit fan inspired me to pick this photo to be the December 2017 Bus Photo of the Month. Yesterday’s photo featured a Budd car from Miami that is nearing the end of its service life on account of its replacement having just entered revenue service. Today’s photo features the first type of Metrobus that I recognized as being “different” (in other words, new) as a budding transit fan in the early 1990s. At that age, I had no idea what a Flxible was, what a Metro-B was, or that these buses would push out some older bus that I either wasn’t familiar with or didn’t have an attachment to. However, I did notice these buses had larger destination signs, that they “flipped” horizontally instead of vertically, that the interior speakers had a different shape, and a few other differences that most commuters would pass off as being subtle. As I’ve grown older and as time has marched on, there are now quite a few buses in the DC area that I can recall being new that I have seen entirely retired. One of the great joys I have in running this website is that I am able to document my transit fan experience for the ages so that others can see the equipment, paint schemes, and more that are no longer with us but remain as memories perpetually.
For more photos of WMATA’s Flxible Metro-Bs, please click here. The De
Gillig Advantage/BRT 4061
Location: Medical Center Station, Bethesda, MD
Operator of Vehicle: Ride On (Montgomery County Transit)
Date of Photo: October 6, 2017
Exactly one month ago, Ride On, the county operated bus system in Montgomery County, MD, launched its first limited stop service, Route 101 or the Ride On Extra. This route uses a special fleet of BRT styled Gillig Advantage buses. I’m not a huge fan of WMATA’s “MetroExtra” branding for several reasons, but I really like how Ride On has taken this brand from another agency in the area and applied it to itself. The paint scheme and name is clearly derived from WMATA, and to Ride On’s credit, the paint scheme makes it clearer that an approaching bus is a limited stop one than Metro’s scheme. In its first month of service, I had three occasions to take this service, and found the trip to be extremely speedy, though I was admittedly riding against the peak direction of travel each time. The buses have WiFi and USB charging ports on board, but I did not use either feature any of the times I have been on these buses. The buses also still have that new bus smell, so be sure to check it out soon if you want to experience that, too. The Ride On Extra currently operates between Lakeforest Mall and Medical Center Station during weekday rush hours.
For more photos of the Ride On Extra, please click here.
This update includes photos of several things that had not, to date, appeared on my website before now.
Other DC area pages also had photos added to them; these are the WMATA Breda Rehab, WMATA Kawasaki 7000 Series, WMATA Metrorail Stations, WMATA 2008 NABI 60-BRT/CNG, WMATA New Flyer XDE60 Buses, WMATA XDE40 Buses, WMATA New Flyer DE40LFA, WMATA New Flyer DE60LFA, WMATA New Flyer D40LFR, WMATA New Flyer DE40LF, WMATA New Flyer C40LF & C40LFR, WMATA Orion VII/CNG, DC Circulator, Ride On 40 Foot Orion V, Ride On 35 Foot Orion V, Ride On 40 Foot Gillig Advantage/HEV, and MARC Commuter Rail pages.
The photo queue also had some photos from short trips to other cities along the US East Coast, and I was finally able to get to those, too. You will find new photos in the New Jersey Transit Rail Operations and New Jersey Transit Bus Operations pages in the New Jersey section, MBTA Green Line and MBTA Buses pages in the Boston section, and on the MARTA page in the Atlanta section.
As always, I make my perpetual promise to feature some of my favorite photos and the stories behind them in “The Viewfinder” in the near future. I hope to be able to follow through on that promise soon. In the meantime, enjoy the new additions and I hope to share other photos from my queue of uncaptioned photos in the near future.
United Streetcar Model 100 201
Location: H Street, NE near 3rd Street, NE, Washington, DC
Operator of Vehicle: District Department of Transportation
Date of Photo: October 1, 2017
Considering how long the DC transit fan community waited for the city’s first modern streetcar line to open, it seems pretty fitting that I did not get my first ride on the DC Streetcar or take any photos of it until 18 months after that very delayed opening. Most of that delay was logistical from my end, as a result of its initially limited operating hours, not serving a part of the area that I find myself in very often, and my not having time to make a special trip just to check it out. However, yesterday, things aligned in such a way that I got to go for a joyride and get my first photos.
As someone who was born and raised in the DC area, to see how the H Street, NE corridor has changed in the years both before and after the streetcar’s construction is nothing short of remarkable. This photo of the month was taken from the “Hopscotch Bridge” over Amtrak’s line leading in to Union Station looking towards the east. In the past, there wouldn’t be much to see from here, the neighborhoods visible in this photo were not the sorts of places many people would go to a bar, shop, or even think about living. Now, when one stands on the Hopscotch Bridge, one sees new construction, a bustling entertainment area, and lots of street and pedestrian traffic stretching the length of the corridor, which runs about 12 blocks from where I took this photo. Despite some flaws and other issues, the streetcar definitely plays a role in the development of this part of town.
For more photos of the DC Streetcar, please click here. And be on the lookout for additional posts here on the Travelogue about the DC Streetcar in the near future!
If you wanted to travel by train from Richmond to other places featured on Oren’s Transit Page, Amtrak would be a great choice, and you can now see photos of the relatively recently restored Main Street Station in downtown Richmond on the Amtrak Stations page, as well as Amtrak’s Genesis P42 Locomotives serving the station. New photos were also added to the Amtrak ACS-64 Locomotives and Acela Express pages.
Even further to the north, there are two new Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority bus photos in this update. If you travel very far to the east, a single photo of an Israel Railways Bombardier trainset that was not included in the most recent update from Israel is now on the site.
Despite my constantly telling myself there isn’t all that much in the photo queue, getting through it all always seems to take longer than I expect. I have a number of interesting articles to profile on Oren’s Reading List, and also plan to share more commentary on some of my photos through the Viewfinder, including some of my favorite photos from this update. In addition to adding new photos from a variety of sections, I also hope to have the New York section rebuilt sometime in the next 6 months. But while you’re waiting on all the content to come, I do hope you enjoy the new content that was just added or revisiting the content that I’ve posted over the past 16+ years.
@alex_block Wiedefeld said today #WMATA is keeping car number 1000 at a minimum. Didn’t seem to have plans to keep any 4ks
— Max Smith (@amaxsmith) February 15, 2017
You may recall that almost a year ago, I asked who wants to preserve a piece of DC transit history when WMATA began to retire its 40+ year old 1000 Series railcars. Some suggestions came out of the post, but I was unable to investigate any of those options myself. In light of this good news, I hope that WTOP and other outlets are able to find out if it is in fact car 1000 (pictured above) that will be preserved, if 1001 (1000’s mate and the first car to actually be delivered to WMATA) will be preserved as well, and if they will remain in operating condition for special events, the way that New York City runs its vintage fleet at various times each year. Of course, if I hear any answers to these questions myself, I’ll be sure to share that news here.
What do you think WMATA should do with the 1000 Series cars that it preserves?