Depending on your point-of-view, these may be some of the best rail cars ever purchased by the MBTA, or if you ride these cars today, you may view the 01200's as the worst.

The "Orange Blossoms" started to be seen on these rails about 40 years ago and were purchased in the same order with the 0600 "Blue Belle" cars for the Blue Line. The order for the Orange Line cars came after the Blue Line cars, as the 01100 cars they replaced had not seen 25 years of service, and were still very reliable at the time.

Fast forward to 2019, and the 01200 cars are still getting it done everyday, even as almost 40 years of service has caught up to them. According to news reports and other sources, the 01200's never had the recommended mid-life rebuild. The Hawker-Siddeley, now Bombardier, folks north of the border knew how to build them to last, and the MBTA techs know how to keep them in business.

As more of the new 1400 series Chinese built Orange Line cars get accepted into service, the 01200s will eventually be retired, and scrapped, with hopefully a pair (or two) going to Seashore for preservation. While the Chinese cars look great, brand new, hopefully they will hold up as well as the "Orange Blossoms" have over the years, and decades..

Photographed by Jay Gadon, November 16, 2019.
Added to the photo archive by Jay Gadon, November 17, 2019.
Railroad: MBTA.

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