Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority 01178 and 01179

Boston opened its first elevated line in 1901. Known as the Main Line Elevated, the line ran between Everett and Forest Hills. It 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 for the Main Line Elevated in various batches culminating with the Number 10 cars, Nos. 0901 – 01000, built by Laconia and Wason in 1928. (In Boston, rapid transit car numbers all started with zero to distinguish them from surface streetcars. Cars were not interchangeable between Boston’s three rapid transit lines.) The Number 10 and older cars were still operating when the Metropolitan Transportation Authority took over from BERy in 1947. The new public agency began replacing its rapid transit fleet with new cars for the East Boston-Revere Beach Line (later renamed the Blue Line). Then, in 1957-58, the MTA acquired 100 new cars for the Main Line Elevated. These were designated Number 11 cars, Nos. 01100 – 01199. Pullman-Standard built the cars at the former Osgood Bradley plant in Worcester, the last rail cars to be built there. The No. 01100s featured a variety of improvements and replaced most of the older cars. To get a wider body with tight platform clearances, they had curved sides. The 01100s were 55’ long, compared with 46’ for the 0900s, but the new cars were 18% lighter due to lightweight steel construction. The cars were the first in the country with air springs. The 01100s operated in pairs with an operator’s cab at one end of each car. The guard positions and door controls were located on the outside of the blind ends of the cars. The MTA reorganized as the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority in 1964. In 1965, the MBTA rebranded the Main Line Elevated as the Orange Line. The 01100s continued operating even as the MBTA altered the Orange Line’s route. In 1975, the MBTA re-routed the northern section of the line serving Charlestown from an elevated structure to a subway. In 1980-1991, the MBTA retired the 01100s and replaced them with Number 12 cars built by Hawker-Siddeley in anticipation of a further line change in 1987 when the southern section moved from an elevated structure above Washington Street to a route adjoining the Southwest Expressway. The 01100s went into storage, and most were scrapped. Nos. 01178-01179 came to Seashore in 1991. They joined Number 10 Main Line cars Nos. 0997 and 01000 that Seashore had acquired in 1980-1981. In 1996, Seashore acquired two more No. 10 cars, Nos. 0986 and 0996. In 1994, the museum also acquired Boston Elevated car No. 0210 which had been built for the Main Line Elevated in 1906 and which was later used as a wrecking tool car. Boston’s Main Line Elevated is further represented at Seashore by Tower C, a signal tower formerly located near North Station, and by Northampton Station, an elevated structure transported to the museum in 1990.