MBTA Commuters Moving About at North Station Boston in 1988

[radanju2]

I miss those old mbta locomotives!

[gp40mc]

Wow those RDCs were on their last legs. You can see they are running but need the F10 to move haha.

[PKingman]

They kept one motor for heat and AC.

[gp40mc]

oh okay. Why couldn't they use HEP from the engine? I guess RDCs probably werent desinged to be pulled by engines.

[jamin108]

lol

[jamin108]

I was 1995 to

[jamin108]

i was not born !!!!!!!!!

[sticklets87]

Awesome! Some of those F40's must of been brand new back then

[KatoPowered]

Thanks for posting this footage of F10s rollin thru Boston I haven't seen one since I was about 9 years old.! Not so easy to find footage of these anymore.

[DJGENEX71]

Wow that's some classic footage there! I was 17 when it was filmed! 5***** for sure!

I like the F unit and the F-40's!

[gtoinwq]

im pretty sure the purple line started up in 96

[PKingman]

There are a bunch of Purple Lines. Most of them served as commuter lines over the last hundred or more years. The Lowell line is one of the oldest rail lines in America. The Framingham route is also ancient. The Middleboro line is part of the old route to Cape Cod. Trains went all the way to PTown once. I think that the "Purple" MBTA designation started sometime in the late 1970s or early 80s. Not sure exactly when. Maybe with the Mike Dukakis administration.

[yeahhjoe]

Yeah....the trains basically still look the same. They still use double deckers though, i love those soo much.

Nice video, great footage!

[mello27]

the double deckers are moved to the south side

[AutisticPsycho]

Ah back, at the old Gahden and North Station was crappy, at least that's what my dad told me, I wasn't alive at this time.

[PKingman]

Your father speaks the truth. It was crappy. So was South Station. The true crappiness does not really show in this video.

[dahood07]

HA!!! I KNEW IT!!! the MBTA still uses the old outdated stuff. poor MBTA, too poor to afford to any new trains. compared to the MTA Long Island Railroad, they at least have those new double deckers and M7 trains. in other words, the MTA owns, pwns, and defeats the MBTA

[PKingman]

Yup. Your 2007 Long Island Railroad beats our 1988 MBTA by a mile.

[dahood07]

well dont take it to hard, at least you guys still have a method of transportation

[PKingman]

I'm not. In 2007, versus 1988, we have some really nice new stuff. Only problem is that we have to now pay for it. The MBTA has been raising fares regularly. I hardly ever use the service but I have friends that are hit pretty hard in the pocketbook. Look at some of my other videos up on YouTube and you will find some of the new equipment.

[CBass1307]

Trains Magazine and the Providence Journal both published articles about 6 months ago the the MBTA ordered 700 more Bi-Levels and 120 Locomotives. Sounds like we will see some new equipment very soon. Rumor has it the locos are a 4000hp model of the MP36.

[PKingman]

That is an amazing amount of equipment for an outfit that is crying about being out of money to be buying all at once.

[CBass1307]

It is alot of equipment, but What I think they are doing is replacing most of if not all of their Locos and single level cars, as well as the older Bi-Levels. Maybe this purchase is why they have no money.

[gaelicstorm]

is charlie still riding that one?

[PKingman]

He is lost down in the subway someplace. I think he is probably hanging out in one of the old closed stations. He is waiting for a streetcar that will never come.

[billd66]

He's on a trolley listening to Dropkick Murphys on his iPod.

[FranklyMisterShankly]

This is old school stuff. I remember those stainless steel cars as late as 1989 - some of them still had the old Boston & Maine markings, others had the purple and yellow stripe.

[PKingman]

They had some real old junk when they first started getting the commuter rail system up and running.

[monnie110]

I wonder what ever happened to the 2 floor ones. I liked those the best because they had a table in the middle of the car you could sit at if I remember correctly.

[burbank]

Wow those were some old cars. They were still using those in 1988?

[PKingman]

You must be talking about the caars being pulled in by MBTA engine #1152. Those are old Budliners, or Bud RDCs. They were originally self propelled. No locomotive needed. I think that the cars you see here are probably at least 25 or 30 years old. They are all gone now. I remember riding in one of these things from Buzzards Bay to Boston around 1959. It did about 80 mph.