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MARC Bi-level Gallery Commuter Coaches
On May 1, 2004, after returning from a tour of the Western Maryland Maryland
Junction complex and other sites, I found these three freshly-delivered MARC
double decker passenger cars waiting on the siding a the WMRY Cumberland
Station. The cars are MARC 7900, 7901, and 7902. These cars will be used to
ease congestion on the MARC Brunswick line. The three are former Chicago
Metra bilevel gallery commuter coaches repainted into the current Metra
scheme and then touched-up with MARC logos and details..
The images are a little pixilated due to a setting I mistakenly had on in my
image program. I'll fix them in the future.
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Click on any image to see a larger version in a new window.
Car 7900
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Car 7900 End
Car 7900 was at the rear of the three car string on the siding at
the Western Maryland Cumberland Station
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7900 End
You can see the clean details on the end of car 7900 in this photo
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Car 7900 Hoses and Coupler
Car 7900 is sporting quite a few brand new hoses in this photo. It's very rare
to see equipment in such pristine condition
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Car 7901
Car 7901 Leads
Car 7901 leads the 3 car string
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Car 7901 3/4 View
A 3/4 view of Car 7900
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Car 7901 Side View
A nice side view of car 7901 clearly showing the text on either side of the
door, as well as the set of four windows per level on each side.
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7901 Trucks
A closeup of the trucks on car 7901. Notice the MARC logo - you can see where
the former Metra logo was painted out. Thanks to folks on the Passenger Car
List for pointing this out to me.
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Car 7902
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Car 7901 Doors
Doors and surrounding text for car 7901
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7901 is in the Middle
Car 7901 is in the middle of this three car string
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Other Details
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Coupled Detail
A detail of the bottom of the diaphragm and the connected hoses between two of
the cars
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Diaphragm Coupled
Similar shot to that above, but from a wider angle
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Emergency Door Release
The emergency door release and associated instructions. This was located to the
left of the door.
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Fireman
Some sort of fire prevention/control device ant the associated sign
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Underside Detail
Additional underside detail to the right of the door.
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To see one of these cars in the Metra scheme, look at the fourth photo on this
page: http://hometown.aol.com/metrafan/rosmetpp.html
More information found on the net:
(July 2003) MARC IS OBTAINING METRA GALLERY COACHES: *MARC is obtaining 16
Chicago METRA Pullman Standard gallery bilevel commuter coaches, built in 1970
for CRI&P and C&NW line service and sent to MARC directly from Metra
revenue service. MARC plans to use the cars, transferred via a Federal transit
program from Illinois to Maryland, on the Brunswick Line as "backfill cars"
while the 1991 and 1993 Sumitomo cars get a ten year overhaul. MARC will be
making minor adjustments to the cars for HEP, window system, and safety
signage. No repainting is planned; the cars carry a variation of Metra's paint
scheme with Operation Lifesaver logos beside the center doors. These cars are
not to be confused with the 19 former C&NW bilevels obtained from VRE from
a private vendor, whichentered service after lengthy delays owing to the
bankruptcy of a subcontractor for the cars' refurbishing.
And from the MARC site:
For Immediate Release: March 23, 2004
Other posts found elsewhere suggest that these same three cars were
put into service on the Brunswick line in March of 2004. Why they were back up
in Cumberland in May is a mystery to me.
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