Builder: Wason Manufacturing Co.
Description: #10 Elevated
Secondary Use: None
Type: Rapid Transit Cars
Year: 1928
Retired from Service: 1980
Acquired by the Museum: 1980
Fund: 552
Sponsor/Manager: None

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority 01000

From Boston, Massachusetts

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History

Boston opened its first elevated line in 1901. Known as the Main Line Elevated, the line was rebuilt over the years and became today’s Orange Line of the MBTA. Between the line’s opening in 1901 and 1928, the Boston Elevated Railway purchased cars in 10 different batches. Nos. 0796 – 01000, known as Series 10, were built by Wason in 1928. (In Boston, rapid transit car numbers all started with zero to distinguish them from surface streetcars.) Purchase of the series 10 cars allowed the BERy to retire the last of its early wooden elevated cars. While the same size as the early wooden cars, the series 10 cars had air-operated doors and other safety and operational improvements. The series 10 cars continued operating when the Metropolitan Transportation Authority took over from BERy in 1947. The MTA used the series 10 cars less after 1957 when it purchased 100 longer, series 11 cars. (The series 11 cars are represented at Seashore by Nos. 01178 and 01179.) Beginning in 1962, the MTA assigned No. 01000 to work train service. By 1963, the MTA had retired all the series 10 cars except five, including No. 01000, which went into work train service. The MTA reorganized as the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority in 1964. In 1965, the MBTA rebranded the Main Line Elevated as the Orange Line. Seashore acquired No. 01000 from the MBTA in 1980. The museum equipped it with trolley poles and made it operational. In 1981, another series 10 car, No. 0997 was retired and brought to Seashore. Then, in 1994, Seashore acquired a Boston Elevated series 3 car, No. 0210. Nos. 0210 and 0997 are not equipped with poles but can receive power from No. 01000 through a bus jumper. Volunteers reconditioned No. 01000, and, in 1991, completed repainting the car into its 1957 MTA paint scheme of orange and gray. The three Boston Main Line elevated cars could operate as a train.