The Western Railway Museum’s BART Legacy Fleet has reached its milestone of the first car available for public inside viewing – C1 car 329 is now available and open to the public during guided Carbarn 3 Tours.
 
Since its arrival at the Museum in October 2024, the car has received a host of TLC. Work on the car includes:

• Upgrading car auxiliary electrical systems to run off Carbarn power (instead of 1000 volt third rail power and the car’s inverter)
• Replacing burnt out light bulbs (exterior trouble light and headlights)
• Replacing graffitied mylar window film with new film
• Replacing selected ads with ads from the 1980s/1990s (when the car first entered service)
• Cleaning the car, including replacing dozens of heavily tagged and etched seats, stained doors, ceilings, and more.
• Modifying doors to prevent visitors from falling out the non-walkway side, and from getting locked out/in from the walkway side.
• Replacing broken parts and currently working on replacing and crafting replacement pieces.

 
However, the car will always be a work in progress, so please understand not everything has been repaired and replaced. The car is cleaner than when it exited service in May 2023, so it’s still worthy of a visit.
 
The car is available under a docent-led tour of Carbarn 3 at the Western Railway Museum. I can’t guarantee there will be a docent available for this tour every day the museum is open. However, please feel free to contact me and I will tell you when I will be at the museum next.
 
Currently, I will be at the museum on June 29th (Sunday).

And of course, I want to cordially thank everyone who has helped out at the museum, especially those that have worked on prepping the cars for delivery and that recent stretch to making them accessible. It has been an excellent example of teamwork and dedication, leveraging many different talents from several people to complete numerous key items, such as crafting custom dollies to deliver the cars, upgraded car electrical systems to ensure decades of reliable performance, and cleaned and repaired the car to ensure the 329 is the finest remaining example of a fully-complete BART C car.
 
In addition, I want to thank the BART employees that have helped the museum preserve these cars, extending an unparalleled level of support in ensuring that the legacy fleet is preserved in full, not just through three cars, but an extensive collection of parts, tools, equipment, signage, and many other things, that help the museum maintain the fleet and capture the overall world that the legacy fleet ran in.

Progress Made and Work Remains with the BART Legacy Fleet preserved at the Western Railway Museum.

Today, October 4, 2024, C1 car 329 arrived at its final home of the Western Railway Museum. It is the last C car to leave BART property and the only C car to be preserved in complete condition.

The car was selected by BART, among the final C1 cars left in service in May 2023. The 329 was considered the car in the best condition for preservation. The 329 must have known that too, since it was always auxed on during WRM inspections and even moved to the shop under its own power and even had a little bit of battery power upon arrival at WRM.

Only a few things were removed for transportation to the Museum, the largest being an air tank mounted below the cab, and the pilots mounted on the truck. They have all since been reinstalled, and it is a complete car. I did get a fair bit of dirt helping to reinstall that air tank under the car.

It’s been some time since I’ve been around a C car. Since its arrival, it has been a great opportunity to remember all the differences as compared to the Rohr A/B cars, including the carbody welds. It is a sort of work of art. On the other hand, those flipper doors will probably be a forever issue, even at WRM.

WRM is working with BART and even PBM members to facilitate car lighting and other functions. The cars will be a pride of the WRM fleet, if they aren’t already. Please be patient, the fellows working on this at WRM are all volunteers. I can only be at one place at one time, but rest assured the cars will soon be the best ever static display of the BART system.

Regardless, the best C car has been preserved. The Westinghouse chopper control system, the Westinghouse 1463 BA traction motors, and even an authentic Alstom BART car, have all been preserved through the 329. All of this is due to a great cooperation between BART and the Western Railway Museum, of which includes many dedicated BART retirees.

The Western Railway Museum is selling BART Legacy Fleet Train Operator Consoles sourced from retired cars. For $1000 each, you can own a core piece of BART history and support the preservation of three complete legacy cars at the Museum.

This video presents a history of the different train operator consoles of the Legacy Fleet, the functions of the console, and how to purchase one from the Museum if so inclined.

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

Snow up on Mission Peak/Mount Allison/Monument Peak today, 2/24/23

C1 car 361 (entered service in 1988) sports two 1991 BART PD ads, as of December 2022.