A2 car scrappings resumed this month (October), with 4 such examples thus far: 1218, 1233, 1258, 1270.

With some scrapping earlier this year and last year due to crashes, alongside the 1208 of 2020, this leaves 51 A2 cars left (total count was 59 A2 cars).

Built 1973 as A car 218. Rebuilt in 2000 as A2 car 1218.

Only A car with single seats.

Built 1973 as A car 233. Rebuilt in 2002 as A2 car 1233.

Built 1975 as A car 258. Final acceptance on 9/11/1975 (Day 1 + 3 years). Rebuilt in 2002.
Patch below left cab side window.

Built 1975 as A car 270. Rebuilt in May 2001.

Let's take a look at another random A2 car - this time, the old 1258.

Originally built as A car 258 in 1975, by Rohr, and delivered to BART on June 18, 1975. Things were so bad back then that the final A cars, including 258, were delivered without carborne ATC equipment - they were essentially mothballed right out of the factory. Like many other late A cars, the 258 lost her motors and didn't enter service till the late 1970s.

She was rebuily into A2 car 1258 in 2002 by Bombardier, and 21 years later is still rolling around the system on Orange and Red line trains.

She has a little patch below the left cab window.

WRM recently received a truck from BART. The truck was sourced from a recently retired and scrapped B2 car.

The truck itself is an original Rockwell model HPD-3 inboard bearing, cast steel truck, designed and used by BART’s A and B cars, and later refurbished and used on the A2 and B2 cars. The image below shows various components of the truck as originally built.

Compare to below

This particular truck, serial #2368 has a build date of 1970 as seen by the builder’s plate.

During the midlife refurbishment of the A and B cars into the A2 and B2 cars in the late 1990s and 2000s, these Rockwell trucks were refurbished and replaced their Westinghouse 1463 DC motors with Adtranz 1507C AC motors.

The third rail shoe and related assembly (in red, stored on top at the moment) picks up 1000 volt DC third rail and feeds it to the propulsion system (inverter) located underneath the carbody. Then, AC power and commands from the car powers the two motors, moving the truck (and the car mounted on the truck).

Overall, the truck is in excellent condition and with a few more parts, will be a complete B2 car truck. This truck will help the BART car preservation effort by providing numerous measurements to ensure safe movement and storage of three BART legacy cars in WRM’s Carbarn 3.

This year, the oldest A (technically, A2) cars reach the 50-year mark - a half century since their original construction. One such example is A2 car 1203, originally built by Rohr as A car 203. To note, A2 cars 1164-1250 were built in 1973 and 1251-1276 were built in 1975.

The first order for BART revenue vehicles consisted of 250 cars - 150 A cars and 100 B cars. The 203 was built within this order, and about the 156th car off the assembly line. It was delivered to BART in March 1973 and entered service within the year. Further orders for cars resulted in a fleet sized to be 176 A cars and 274 B cars (but never totally achieved).

By the 1990s, the A/B cars were a bit long in the tooth and in need of a rebuilding. The midlife refurbishment program included the rebuilding of A car 203 into A2 car 1203 in 2001.

Now, about 22 years and 2.2 million miles later, the legacy fleet is steadily being replaced by the Fleet of the Future. The 1203 will probably meet its end thorough scrapping, or it may be among the chosen few BART cars to find a second (or perhaps third) life in an alternative use. Whatever the case, here are a couple pics of a “young” 203 in the 1970s and an “old” 1203 in 2023 – the former from my collection and the latter taken this month (with a dead headlight nonetheless).

(To note, A cars in service in 1972 are all now B2 cars numbered in the 1800s-1900s, leaving the oldest A2 car as the 1164, delivered in January 1973).

Side note: The story of the BART legacy cars is not one which can be shortened to a series of posts here and crossposted in other places. I am working on a book covering the history of the BART fleet, from design to retirement, and it is fast approaching 400 pages chocked full of detail and pictures. What would you like to see in such a book and how would you gauge interest in such a subject? Please feel free to contact me on the "about" page of the website. Thanks!

BART has started selling number plates for retired legacy cars (on Railgoods.com and sometimes in person at the Lake Merritt Customer service center).

As the owner of the BARTchives, a recorded rider of 660/669 legacy fleet cars, and a person who has also taken a photo of almost every car, I'm happy to share my pictures and any neat details about your car. All I ask is that you send me a photo of your number plate, and if you share the car picture(s), that I be credited as the person that took the picture(s).

As a disclaimer, I am providing this for free, subject to my time availability. There is a rare chance that I do not have any pictures of your car, and higher chance that I may not have a perfect photo of it. This isn't some professional outfit - it's a hobby.

Contact me on the "About" page or by emailing atptransitATgmail.com (replace AT with @). I am happy to see interest in my photo collection and have so far provided pictures to owners of 5 different car number plates.

-ATP Transit

The late A2 car 1267 is the trailing car on this SFO Airport bound train, with the city in the background (Rockridge).

Taken June 18, 2021. It was scrapped about a year later, following an accident