MBTA Shorty cars ???

[velotrain]

This afternoon I was riding my bike on the access road to the BET (Boston Engine Terminal) of the MBTA, and saw this unusual sight - apparently a pair of B cars under construction.  I asked a guy just getting off work, but he hadn't seen them, so had no info.  It looks like whatever they will run on is still in the design phase.

 

 

 

 

The engine service facility prior to the current one was quite interesting.  There was a large roundhouse, but the turntable and pit had long been removed.  Instead, a tight network of track and turnouts led to the stalls.

 

 

Here's a view of the BET from the west.  In the left background is the Bunker Hill Monument, commemorating an early battle in the Revolutionary War.  BTW - a temporary 5' railway line was built to carry the granite from the quarry in Quincy to the Neponset River, where it was transloaded for water conveyance to Charlestown.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granite_Railway

 

 

 

 

This shot looks to the SE, with downtown Boston in the background.  In the foreground you can see where there used to be an amazing 5 tracks over 5 angled truss bridge.  I shot a roll of print film on it many years back, but don't have anything digital.  The area in the center of the photo had been the B&M yards, but is now under development.

 

 

 

 

Here is a satellite view of the area:

 

 

 

 

I took the two previous shots from the top floor of the Brickbottom artist's building on the left of the satellite image.  This is an interesting facility - originally an A&P packing plant and bakery.  You can see the greenbelt where the B&M yard access tracks were previously located.  I have a sculpture studio in the building just NW of all the parked school busses.

 

We share an open studios weekend with Brickbottom just before Thanksgiving, and the city (Somerville) had a much larger event the first weekend in May.  The MBTA was planning a Somerville expansion from the Green Line terminus at Lechmere using the former B&M roadbed, but the last I heard was they had decided it would be too expensive, with projected costs now over twice the initial estimate - what else is new?

[katoftw]

Double decker test cars for clearance issues maybe?  Needs some bogies/trucks added.

 

edit//  Never mind.  Google shows me double deckers already exist.

Edited November 7, 2015 by katoftw

[velotrain]

Bi-level cars are currently used - I believe system wide, and have been for some time.

 

However, the box on the roof of the left car looks non-standard for me, and the arch on the left end looks as though it could possibly be for overhead clearance testing, although it looks a lot less bristly than older versions of such cars.  I tried searching for any possibly related news articles, with no luck.  I'll be curious if they mount some form of truck under these, or perhaps mount them on a flat or other car.

 

 

[kvp]

Maybe i'm wrong, but these cars look to be cut off end sections mounted on rollable shop bogies. They seem to be painted after cutting them to size and they are lifed to be at their correct ride height.

[kvp]

and... i just found them. The page calls them Hyundai mockups:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rspicture.aspx?id=589316

("MBTA 1800 and 800 sit tarped at BET after a week or two of being displayed at North Station. Yours truly missed out on the mock up on dispay" and "MBTA 800/1800 Rotem Mockup")

[velotrain]

^{Thanks Viktor.  I gather these cars have been nothing but trouble from the beginning.}