Rare DC Metro Trains You Can’t Ride

Trains Are Awesome!

[jasonlescalleet]

That gold livery looked great, but it also shouted “I’m full of money, please rob me, ” so I think I understand why they changed it. Sure, it had armed guards, but so do a lot of things that get robbed.

[adammarkus]

Interesting that the circulation is good enough in the underground stations for the pickle to sit there for a while without being toxic!

[technoman]

I’m one of the mechanics for the pickle (we call it that too) and all the other diesel powered rail maintenance equipment at WMATA. If you want to catch video of equipment going in and out of the yards, hang out at a station next to a yard right before closing or right at opening. We have a lot of interesting and unique stuff. For example the yellow machine in front of the pickle is a jet rodder vacuum unit for cleaning out tunnel drains.

[DanHominem]

Ive seen the Pickle twice - Once at College Park (the day of the final 2K run!) and later the same day at National Aiprort.
That was a crazy day on the rails!

[tokugawaable]

Thom - GREAT video and great info. A resident of Arlington, 1994-2002, I saw the $$$1000 series once or twice but, of course no pickle. But more than the trains, THANKS for featuring Lindsey. The holidays are for our families and you've become family to those of us out here on distant rails. God Bless you both.

[Michael_DCA]

I saw "The Pickle" rolling by Naylor Rd station last Friday! I never knew it was a diesel.

[downtheline]

I passed the money train while it was in a yard on my way to Metro Fest at Franconia-Springfield last summer! It was super cool seeing it for the first time!

Great video! Glad the TGV is getting some attention!

[BoboTheVulture]

I remember seeing the money train during my time around DC once or twice. It was in that span after 2009 where 1000-series cars were still in use, but never at the ends of a train, with the only exception being the money train.

[AverytheCubanAmerican]

Putting a pickle on a Christmas tree is most popular in the Midwest, especially in Lindsey's home state of Michigan where Berrien Springs is known as the Christmas pickle capital of the world. They hosted a pickle festival and parade from 1992 to 2005 until they brought it back in 2021. The tradition is that on Christmas morning, the first person to find the pickle on the tree would receive an extra present from Santa Claus or would be said to have a year of good fortune! It has been a German-American tradition. There are different origin stories. Woolworths began importing and selling German glass ornaments of all shapes in the 1890s. It's thought that when the pickle ornaments were selling poorly, a crafty salesman dreamed up a European Christmas tradition story to help them do better. Another origin story has been that the tradition came from Camp Sumter during the American Civil War. The Bavarian-born Private John C. Lower had enlisted in the 103rd Pennsylvania Infantry but was captured in April 1864 and taken to the prison camp. As the story is told, on Christmas Eve he begged a guard for a pickle while starving. The guard provided the pickle, which Lower later credited for saving his life. After returning to his family in Bavaria, he began a tradition of hiding a pickle on their Christmas tree each year. Here are some trains on the NYC Subway, Staten Island Railway, and the LIRR that you can't ride:

- The Staten Island Railway uses Brookville Equipment BL20G locomotives. These are nearly identical to the BL20GH locomotives used on the Metro-North Railroad, however, they lack the head-end power generator and the associated ventilation grates of the BL20GH. Similar to the PATH, while the Staten Island Railway uses subway rolling stock, it's regulated by the FRA. SIRT was once owned by the B&O railroad, sold to the city in 1971 and turned over to the MTA (it was reorganized as SIRTOA, but reverted to Staten Island Railway in 1994). The B&O operated electric rapid transit passenger service and regular freight service. After B&O became part of the Chessie System, the freight service was retained until 1985. The SIR runs along its own right-of-way, severed from the national railroad system in 1985 as the North Shore Branch was slowly abandoned and all freight service to St. George was discontinued (freight trains returned to the western portion of the former North Shore Branch in 2007, using the Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge to NJ). This means it operates outside of normal FRA rules under special waivers. The BL20G locomotives are used to support maintenance-of-way work, such as maintaining tracks, right of way and structures, propelling work equipment that steam-cleans running rails, and applying traction-enhancing gel. The units are also used to haul passenger cars in the event of a third-rail outage and to clear snow from tracks.

- The NYC Subway's VakTrak is a 600-horsepower vacuum train which crawls along at 5 to 10 mph devouring everything in its path. The train was built in France, cost $7.6 million, runs on diesel fuel and has near zero emissions. All along the bottom of one train are various suction hoods that hoover up debris and separates the dust from the garbage. Another car behind, known as the filter car, stores the garbage like a giant vacuum cleaner bag, which is dumped at various points along the way. The train can carry 14 cubic yards of debris. The filter only needs to be changed every three years. Every evening, up to three VakTraks canvass underground sections of the system. Before the train moves at a station, the team inspects the track to look for items considered too bulky, sharp, or otherwise unable to be vacuumed. There are cameras mounted to enable the team to monitor the collection of debris and ensure it's working properly. Every night, VakTrak covers approximately 12 to 15 miles of track, vacuuming up to 6 cubic yards of debris. All underground passenger tracks are vacuumed approximately once every two weeks and VakTrak also covers sections of outdoor lines in the fall where leaves accumulate.

- The NYC Subway used to have its own money train! From 1951 to 2006, an armored money train moved all the subway and bus fares collected to a secret room at 370 Jay Street (the historic headquarters of the NYC Transit Authority and former NYC BOT) in Brooklyn! You can see two money train cars preserved at the NY Transit Museum in Brooklyn. This facility had a direct connections via tunnels to small docks on the subway system, one route each for each division: IRT, BMT and IND that ran closest to 370 Jay Street and thereby allowing the money train to stop and drop off collected cash and pick up bags of tokens for distribution to token booths throughout the system. This room was decommissioned in 2006, and the money room's functions were moved to a "consolidated revenue facility" in Maspeth, Queens.

- In the past, the LIRR formerly used the W83 as one of its snowplows. It was built in its shops in December 1915 atop 1907 flatcars. Looking like a cross between the Chief Blue Meanie from Yellow Submarine and a Curtiss P-40 Warhawk in Flying Tigers livery, it cleared snow along the Main Line for decades before being rebuilt and repainted in November of 1978 as the Jaws III, repainted with a shark jaw, hence the name! Today, you can see it on display at the Railroad Museum of Long Island's Greenport location.

[Peteork]

ive seen the pickle before i ever saw the money train, of which i still havent seen with my own two eyes to this day. says a lot about my life too xD

[Michael_afton]

Never knew that the DC Metro had a pickle 😂

[pjinnj]

I love your new introduction to the video. New York City used to have the money train, but it’s gone. However, we can still see the evidence where the money train dropped the money off in the middle of J St., Metrotech on the F line. We have the geometry train the stream as you described in your video very geometry train, which is the same as the train you describe. You can tell by the loudness in the tunnel and some smell too. It’s very rare to get it like you said. Have yourself a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

[lambo]

2:08 MUSTAAAARD!

I normally dont comment on videos that often, however that does not change the fact that these trains are awesome videos are amazing in capturing the various different ways that public transportation is done, and highlighting the similarities and differences between them, and also highlighting the behind the scenes like in this video here.

Merry Christmas!

[notabot]

In a couple of years they’re probably going to have a 7000 series money train which will be especially interesting because of how different the 7000 series is from all the other train cars in WMATA.

[TheBitNerd]

I actually never even knew about the pickle.
The more you know I guess.

[netwrkd]

My family does the pickle too! So glad to see you do as well. :) Happy Holidays!

[matthewconstantine]

In more than 17 years of using the Metro, including a 6 year period where I was on it almost every day, I've only ever seen the Money Train twice, and the first time was in the middle of the pandemic. Never seen the Pickle.

[SleepTrain]

As always, I found this quite informative! I've heard of the WMATA Money Train, but I didn't know about the "Pickle"... or that both the trains are good luck! The idea of a good luck maintenance-of-way train reminds me of Japan's "Doctor Yellow" bullet trains: not only does it monitor the tracks and overhead lines (kind of like the Pickle), but seeing it is also considered good luck among Japanese railfans.

Speaking of pickles, I see your family does the Christmas pickle tradition, too. My German-American friends hide the pickle in the trees, and my own family will start doing so this year, too!

Thanks for the video!

[DNP_]

Fun fact: the San Francisco Bay Area’s BART system also has a Rail Inspector Vehicle that serves the same purpose of inspecting the rails and track conditions.

[gregorylparks]

Awesome Video! Merry Christmas, Thom, to you and your family 😊.