The Boston Globe, 1/18:
Self-propelled rail cars are blast from MBTA’s past
What’s old is new again for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.
When I reported last week that the MBTA is soliciting bids for self-propelled diesel trains that would run on existing commuter rail tracks, some readers reached out with memories of the T’s old Budd cars, which were essentially the same.
Richard Danca of Newton said he remembers riding one of the trains on a Boy Scout trip to learn about rail cars and jumping off a trestle to avoid getting run over by one in West Roxbury in the 1950s.
Bradley Clarke, a member of the Boston Street Railway Association, said history and economics forced the MBTA to transition from the self-propelled diesel trains to the coach-pulling locomotives that we now see.
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