From 1997, here is a set of Type 4 East Boston Tunnel cars, before making their next stop at Beachmont Station on the Blue Line. These well built cars from Hawker-Siddeley in Canada served the Blue Line from the summer of 1979 to 2008, and were built along with the Orange Line's "Orange Blossom" cars that are still in service today. While these cars were built mechanically well, their shells were made with Cor-Ten steel, which did not fight the good fight with the salty air around Orient Heights yard. By 2008, these cars had lost the battle in a bad way to rust and corrosion, though an operating restored pair resides at Seashore Trolley Museum, and another stripped pair is used for training at the abandoned tunnel above the Broadway Red Line Station.

Overall the "Blue Belles" offered a bright, well lit inviting interior, and very comfortable seating, while the replacement Type 5 cars offer up a dull and drab interior and very uncomfortable hard-as-a-rock seating..

Unknown photographer July 15, 1997.
Added to the photo archive by Jay Gadon, December 1, 2015.
Railroad: MBTA.

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