BART to WRM: A Car 1164 Full Move from Hayward to Museum

A MATTER OF PRIDE: The Western Railway Museum is the new home to BART A2 Car 1164, a 51-year “veteran” of the legacy fleet. Originally built by Rohr as A car 164, it served as the highly instrumented and modified Engineering Test Car – a critical role during the early and unreliable days of the fleet. After almost 30 years of service, it was rebuilt into A2 car 1164 and entered revenue service for 20 more years. It was last in service early in 2024 and stored. It is the first A car to be sent outside of the scrapyard, and the only A car to be preserved. It also represents one of the museum's finest additions - WRM helped out with the construction of BART through loaning out some equipment from the Bridge Units for testing, alongside other tech from time to time. And now, the first of the BART cars has joined the collection after several long years of planning and prep work and a tremendous amount of cooperation with BART.

0:00 Introduction
0:37 Inside the car in the BART shop
1:27 Lifting the car in the BART shop
2:42 Trailer backing into shop
3:59 Lowering the car onto the trailer
5:25 Departing the BART shop
9:31 Crossing the Benicia Bridge
9:56 Starting the unloading process
10:42 Cranes used to lift the car off the trailer and onto BART gauge dollies
11:58 Lifting the car and the trailer moves out
12:55 Flying BART car
13:20 Setting the dollies up
14:49 Riding on the Dollies to Carbarn 3 – Time-lapse
17:16 Lifting the car and removing the Y end dollies
18:39 Rolling the car back to store the Y end dollies
19:28 Pushing the car forward to remove X end dollies. Scraped the HVAC.
20:31 Lifting the car to remove the X end dollies. Time-lapse. Song: BART by Ruby
21:51 The final ride – onwards to the end of track
22:01 Walking around the car
23:31 Electric horn
23:49 Inside the car
25:43 Walking around the car
26:41 End – “A Matter of Pride” film with 164

[craigchadwick]

I retired from Bart 10 years ago. I remember when car 164 was sent out for retrofit to A2 1164. It was part of Richmond Shops captive fleet. One of the big differences between the legacy fleet and the rehab fleet was the traction motors. The legacy fleet had DC traction motors as opposed to the rehab fleet using AC traction motors. Maintenance on the DC motors required more man power. Most of the time the brushes had to be replaced or we would have to stone the commutator as we used to say. The comm would become out of round causing a traction motor to flash or the brushes would wear faster.

[MakeItWithCalvin]

That's amazing work by all, and mad respect for the crane operators lifting that and dropping it down precisely like it's no big deal! Sad to see the old BART trains go, but glad to see that they are being kept around! The dollies system for moving it was really clever.

[WMAC_Master]

this is a serious w move from bart and WRM
I heard they did testing on tracks near the WRM. can't wait to see it at the museum!
how many legacy cars are still around

[blakrootz]

From beginning to end, this was an awesome video. @15:01 great sound effect.

[bscnr]

Hey Andy, I noticed that in older photos of the BART fleet, they used to have multicolored 'black tags' near the end of the cars at 27:09 under the vent behind the car number -- I was curious if you knew what those were; my guess would be maintenance-related. They were also present on C-cars but went away over time. Thanks, and truly great work documenting the BART fleet as they were sunsetted, they will be missed.

[mowncry]

Many years later I actually got a cab ride in an A unit from South Hayward station to a crew change at the South Hayward yard

[CubeAtlantic]

BART has a relaxed & fast vibe even as a Canadian/New Yorker.

[Buurtspoor]

I presume it will be a static display because of the gauge and third rail supply. BTW Great museum. I paid it a visit once. Ggreetings from Europe.

[coach]

Good timing that I discovered the Western Railway Museum a couple of years ago. Now I know where to go to see the BART cards on future trips. I do think it's a shame that BART themselves did not build their own museum and preserve some cars on their own. Perhaps not the job of a transit agency. But at least, the WRM has some passoniate historians that will keep the old BART cars around for many years to come. Look forward to see the Rapid Transit History center built at some point.

[SunsetSemaphores]

26:40 *Oh that's a fantastic edit!* How much of the original tapes, films, etc. exist. Those needed to be preserved too... There are advanced techniques that can be used to get a really clean copies off of damaged vintage films.

[TurningRedForever]

This Car 1164 was delivered 1 day before my birthday 34 years before I was born🤯

[Flipside]

So ironic that a MUNI tug was used to move 1164.

[SunsetSemaphores]

What fantastic machines. It's so sad that only three of them are going to be preserved in a somewhat operable state.

Did Bart destroy anything related to ancillary equipment like the air conditioners, the commutators, how complete are they?

[phxpaul]

There’s a pretty hefty cleaning job. Are there plans to restore the interior to the carpeting, and cloth seats? Will the museum be getting a B car?

[anitrain]

Will WRM be the only museum with legacy BART cars or are any others being preserved elsewhere? Seems kinda risky having everything left in one place.

[DNP_]

Just out of curiousity, did you guys get to choose which cars BART sent to you?

[stevenwjudd]

Are there any plans to power the interior of the car for display or model one of them to be the "original" interior?

[ethantlyu]

What is the date where this car moved to the museum?

[RR-pfdr]

Is the ba on the nose going to get touched up? The b looks pretty faded

[mowncry]

Well the first time I was in that shop building nothing was in the yard no tracks at all, and the building had not anything in it either no equipment it was still under construction