T photo of the day

I don't feel the need to win; I thought we were having a lovely little debate but you folded like a lawn chair. But maybe I'm right if it was just that easy.

And judging by where you are, if I do indeed have it correct, either routing will still be your proverbial "backyard". I really don't see what the fuss is. We can build a line through a marsh to serve no one at all or we could potentially serve people by sticking to developed land.

Why are you still dragging this on? ENOUGH.


Anyone have any closer shots of the MP36PH locomotives the MBTA bought last year? They are the odd looking new locomotives...
 
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Anyone have any closer shots of the MP36PH locomotives the MBTA bought last year? They are the odd looking new locomotives...

Tons of 'em here: http://photos.nerail.org/search/sea...SIMPLE&PAGE=1&BOOL=ALL&SEARCHSTRING=MBTA+MP36.

Those things are one of the most popular new buys for transit systems around the country. The junky emergency rentals we just got from Maryland were on the market because MARC replaced them with a whole order of MP36's.

Not sure why the T is going all-new and (yet again!) unproven design with its next locomotive purchase when the MP36's are a pretty battle-tested current-gen design that is not going to take eons to build, test, and (fingers-crossed) work. They could stand to ape just a tad more the management decisions of less-cursed transit agencies.
 
Those MP36s look like F40s with a new nose cap.

They are...it's a couple-times-removed descendent. Motive Power also manufactured the F40's from 1992-2000 after taking the model over (via multiple mergers and product swaps) from the original manufacturer. The T's last purchase of all-new locos in '92 was 12 of those last-generation F40's. MP36 has very different, more modern guts but the carbody definitely has an F40 lineage. Pretty much every new model today has the weird-looking aerodynamic nose job, so get used to seeing that everywhere.

Vendors are part of the reason for the T's current model assignments. MP's taking the decrepit old 1978-era "screamer" F40's off their hands when the new order is broken in, plus the MARC lease units. And probably rehabbing/reselling all of the better-shape F40's they take because the locomotive aftermarket is hot these days and old units can pretty much be rebuilt again and again (the GP9 yard switcher at BET, for instance, is 55 years old...and that's not even all that ancient as active rebuilds go for that particular make). They're also offering a service warranty on the T's MP36's so they don't have an awkward maintenance situation retaining only 2 units of a totally different make from the rest of the fleet.

Not a bad business arrangement overall. It's just still puzzling that they insisted again on all-new instead of buying a bunch of "just works" MP36's that could roll out of the factory years earlier without requiring 2 other subcontactors to manage the project.
 
Was that at 2:20? If so, that might be my train and a train to Rockport that leaves same time. If so, I'd be in that bi-level car! :)
 
Interesting busway. If eeryone is on the left, why is the sidewalk on the right wider?
 
What the heck is going on with those "walls?"

Are they supposed to be shear walls or something??
 

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