Today the folks at the Sierra Train + House, a future vacation rental house in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, received their BART Legacy Car - perhaps a new type of gold I think.

A2 Car 1234, after about 6 million miles and over 50 years of service, has earned a retirement out in Tuolumne County and departed Hayward Shop yesterday, March 13 and overnighted at the transportation contractor’s yard in Stockton. It arrived late this morning, March 14 and was placed on a dedicated BART-gauge trackway at the Sierra Train House Site.

A very special thanks for the invitation to watch the delivery, and stay tuned for more updates throughout the year!

The first BART car off of the Rohr assembly line was A car #101, one of ten prototype cars designed to resolve planned and unplanned “bugs” with the BART cars. The 101 was delivered in August 1970, and was the only A car rolling around until mid-November, thus the picture of this short “one car train.” Also note the silver painted cab – the prototype cars had an odd variety of “liveries.”

To note, at the time there were three boxy “Laboratory Cars” which also operated up and down the “[Southern] Alameda line.” They were originally built for operation on the Diablo Test Track located in Concord.

At the conclusion of the prototype car testing program, most of the “dented and battered” prototype cars were replaced with production cars of the same number. The original 101 was scrapped and the new replacement 101 rolled for a few years until becoming B car 821, thence B2 car 1821 (and scrapped).