Photos of the first two Metro Cars from 1974

I thought some of you might like to see some early photos of WMATA cars from 1974-- the first two Rohr cars being tested on the test track in WInder, GA, shipped on flatcars to Washinton , and unloaded at Brentwood shops. Also there are two shots of the WMATA car being tested at the Pueblo Test Track in Colorado in 1976.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/polybalt/

These pictures are awesome! I absolutely love historical photos of the early days from Metro... Thank you for these!

The Brentwood shot looks like it came from the WMATA archive.

The roll signs are not installed in the cars in the Winder Georgia pictures.

National Airport is displayed in the head sign at the platform, New Carrollton is displayed in the sign boxes of the three quarter view on the test track in Pueblo, Colorado.

I could be wrong but I think all of these picture might be from WMATA archive.

To bad they are not larger scans. Nice anyway.

I saw another photo on "The Story of Metro" book I have of the first Rohr pair arriving at Brentwood/Ivy City taken in Dec 1974.

"Robert Paniagua"
I saw another photo on "The Story of Metro" book I have of the first Rohr pair arriving at Brentwood/Ivy City taken in Dec 1974.

Actually the photo in Ronald Deiter's book is dated 11-16-1974

The car in the book is the same car. The empty flat car in WMATA_Brentwood_12-74 is close to the location where the loaded TOFC car is in The Story of Metro. Both pictures look like they were taken around the same time on the same day based on the clouds and shadows.

I erred. Larger versions of the pictures can be had by clicking on the zoom picture icon.

The picture taken in Richmond Virginia appears to be displaying Union Station in the Sign Boxes of both cars.

Now...how can we get more pics like these posted?

Its interesting to see the cars being delivered by freight train. Now Metro cars are only transported on flatbed trucks. I once saw a Breda rehab (I'm guessing) being transported by truck and I've heard of a couple sightings on I-495 and I-270.

Does anyone know why Metro doesn't transport the cars by freight train anymore?

Excellent pics btw; I've never seen any (of Metro railcars) from that far back

All these photos were scanned recently from my Kodachrome slides. I was the photographer in every case. The dates are the month and year shown on the Kodachrome mount, so could be a month after the event.

I was one of the vehicle test engineers for WMATA's consulting firm, so started working at the Rohr plant in Winder about the time the first pair ( 1000-1001) were complete enough to go into test. I travelled with that pair to Brentwood (literally with them -- I rode the rider caboose in the photo the entire way with the cars), and took part in the testing program there. Later I went with two pairs to TTC in Pueblo and started the test program there.

I do have more slides, but they generally cover the same days and location. If there is enough interest I can scan some more and post them.

Peter,

Thank you for sharing. I, as well others here would appreciate you publishing some of the other pictures.

I stand corrected as to their origin.

It's kind of a shame... there are hundreds of pictures of NY's subways on the web... but comparatively so few of Metro....

Of course, NY's subway has been around A LOT longer.... but still I wish there was more history of Metrorail on the web...

I ha scanned and posted eight more early WMATA photos to the same Fickr site:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/polybalt/

I think the discriptions in Flickr tell the story. I can try to answer any questions you may have.

BTW, If you look carefully at the 3/4 view of the cars running at the Pueblo test track, you can make out the short pieces of 2x12 lumber we used to shim out and down the third rail collector assemblies. The TTC track was built to NYC third-rail gauge, which is different than WMATA.

"polybalt"

I can try to answer any questions you may have.

A few questions:

Which pair was sent to Transportation Technology Center in Pueblo Colorado?

Was that pair shipped to TTC directly from Winder Georgia of did it pass through Washington before heading west?

How long was it there?

What was learned, as in performance compared to other transit rolling stock? AKA top speed, breaking rates, acceleration rates. . . .


About you pictures, You might want to contact David Pirmann at nycsubway.org to get you pictures included in the collection of pictures of metrorail at world.nycsubway.org.

A few questions:

Which pair was sent to Transportation Technology Center in Pueblo Colorado?

Two pairs were sent to Pueblo: 1104/5 and 1108/9


Was that pair shipped to TTC directly from Winder Georgia of did it pass through Washington before heading west?

How long was it there?

Unfortunately i don't remember for sure, but i would think that they came direct from Winder. I left the program after the first month or so, but it ran about 6 months.

What was learned, as in performance compared to other transit rolling stock? AKA top speed, breaking rates, acceleration rates. . . .

Again my memory is hazy, but I'll do my best. At the time FTA (UMTA at the time) was requiriing all new transit car designs to go to Pueblo. I think they had a standard test program they ran on all designs. I think there were also certain one-time "proof-of-deisgn" tests in the contract with Rohr that were deferred to Pueblo because there was not enough high speed track in service in Washington.

Cars testing time was limited in Washington and the test track the was only the inbound mainline between Rhode island Avenue and the portal just before Union Station. We were able to get the cars up to the design speed of 75mph, but just for a few seconds before braking.



The third type of tests were basically burn-in type tests where the cars were run over a simulated WMATA profile of various top speeds and station stops over and over again to make sure the propulsion and friction braking system had the required thermal capacities. The loop at Puelo is perfect, because you can go round-and-round all day with no significant speed restrictions.

I don't think any substantial problems were found with the design and the cars generally met the performance spec. There were a series of motor flash-overs at Pueblo, but the cause turned out the be the high altitude and low humidity in the high desert. A change in brush grade solved the problem.

Pete Schmidt

"polybalt"
Thank you.

Two pairs were sent to Pueblo: 1104/5 and 1108/9

Hmm. . . . This begs the question. Were those pairs run at TTC coupled A to A and B to B? The reason why I ask, I have heard stories that WMATA was not sure they could run that way until the loop was put in service at New Carrollton Yard.

Cars testing time was limited in Washington and the test track the was only the inbound mainline between Rhode island Avenue and the portal just before Union Station. We were able to get the cars up to the design speed of 75mph, but just for a few seconds before braking.

I March of 1975 WMATA produced a promotional film titled "Metro Here And Now" The film was shot at Rhode Island Avenue (inbound track 2) and Metro Center (track 1). At the end of shooting day at Rhode Island Avenue everybody boarded the train and the operator made a run south stopping short of New York Avenue (there was no power to the third rail south of New York Avenue on that day). The top speed on that run was 81 MPH just passed the B99 46 signal at the bottom grade coming off the elevated north of Brentwood Yard. I was in the cab during that run.

I have read accounts by others in various forums that WMATA in the late 1980s ran revenue trains at speeds as high as 80 MPH in regular daily service. I myself have never been on a revenue train doing more then 74 MPH.

I suspect the two pairs at Pueble were checked for operation coupled A to A and B to B, but probably after my time there. There was a wye at Pueblo and it was easy enough to get the cars turned end-for-end.

I am 99% sure the top speed allowed by the WMATA signal ATP system was 75mph. Revenue trains could never run above this speed. Of course test trains often ran with the ATP cut out, so might get a little faster. In an attempt to protect the motors from damage there was an overspeed trip function in the propulsion control equipment set slightly higher.

The reason the top speed was later lowered was to limit the possibility of motor damage. At very high rpm, there was a tendency for the commutator banding to loosen up and fail over time due to the excessive centrifical forces. Of course now that the D.C. motors are gone, that's not a problem.

It was possible to trick the system to get slightly higher speeds. If I remember right, there were two manually operated thumb switches for wheel wear correction, one for the propulsion control and one for the ATP system. New wheels were 28" diameter and allowed to wear down to 25". When the cars got their wheels trued, or replaced, these switches were supposed to be set to the current wheel diameter. When delivered all the cars had new 28" wheels, so setting the switches to the setting for maximum wear could get you another 10% in top speed.