1600's ACSES Equipped????

# 1649 is on the southside. Why is it over there??? Are they testing ACSES on the 1600's that way the whole CTC fleet is south-side capable??? I have actually heard rumors that 1649 IS ACSES equipped, is this true???

Well, I've noticed an unusual number of 1500s at BET - and I've even noticed one or two being used as bathroom cars on northside trains - NOT as control cars.

The 1649 IS ACSES equipped, it has been for sometime now. I dont think it ever really worked, it's over at BET right now. Even when it's on the north side, the car seems to have problems... Seems like they created another lemon. I think it went south this last time to help fill a void of cars down there. They have at least one 300 series car and a few deactivated 1600 cars right now too... We NEED them back, we have too many 4 car trains right now :-\

And the 1500 car, which has been used as a restroom car on a 5-car north side consist recently, can go back south any time! The entire car smells putrid -- as if the toilet overflowed and let sit overnight in the heat. I had it two days in a row on the Lowell line. PHEW!

I too have noticed a number of 1600's over the past couple of weeks.....definately a coach shortage in general, not just control cars.


Have seen the 1612 and 1621 just to mention a couple of #'s for anyone keeping track.

yea, i saw both 1612 and 1621 on #811's and #818's consist. They were being used as coaches

MBTA F40PH-2C 1050 wrote:yea, i saw both 1612 and 1621 on #811's and #818's consist. They were being used as coaches

1600 through 1625 have deactivated controls - they can't be used as control coaches (they are _all_ coaches :D). I've seen a consist of mostly 1600s.

I never saw an answer to this - why were their controls deactivated?

The reason why they were removed is because if they have controls, they have to be inspected every 92 days. Because they dont need all those control cars anymore, it's cheaper to run them just as a coach.

ooo, i thought they were still control cars just being used as a coach

sery2831 wrote:The reason why they were removed is because if they have controls, they have to be inspected every 92 days. Because they dont need all those control cars anymore, it's cheaper to run them just as a coach.

I figured it might be something like that...but in hindsight looks like they could be used again...

The 1500's and 500's are not the best cars on the planet. Back when a 500 could be found anywhere on the train on the Northside(4+ years ago at least, i wanna say about 6), i was heading inbound on the Lowell line with my grandmother. As we got going, i quickly noticed this car had a bad flat spot, and we were sitting right over the wheel. So, we told the conductor, and he told us to go to the rear of the car. So we did. We could still hear the CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK of the flatspor, even over the 50 something screaming kids, and she started to get a headache from it. We told the conductor again, and he refused to do anything, saying he could not man two cars at the same time. About five minutes later, i told him again that she had to move, or she was gonna have a conversation with the Trainmaster, and he promptly moved us back one car, and then, a few others also requested a quieter car, and joined us.

This conductor never got to work for MBCR. A while later(about a year, maybe a little more) we had this same conductor on the first inbound run out of Fitchburg on a weekend. He was drunk. The other conductor on the train told him to go sit down in a closed car, and he would handle the train. When we got to Boston, he was stripped of everything, and got on the next train to Fitchbirg. I would assume he was fired on the spot???

Not to take the conductor's side........but,

1) he/she cannot do anything about flatspots (except blame the engineers LOL)


2) MBTA timetable instructions specify which car(s) are used (where in consist) and the number of coaches to be used depending on crew size.

BTW, 1649's SS trip was short lived. It's back. Saw it Wednesday, as the control car.

Also John, i see they got smart. It appears instead of having lots of 4, mostly 5, a handful of 6, and one 7 car train, tehy're all five car trains. That's all i've seen all week. Is this permanent???

Oh, and BTW, i saw a THREE car train at South Station yesterday.

a 3 car train!!?? where was it going? hopefully it wasn't going to go on a local run