The item below is from Streetcars Today, a public Facebook page, so you shouldn't have to be on Facebook to see it. . .the subject is the preservation of Los Angeles class P2020 light rail car, built by Nippon Shiro in 1995.
What Bill Becwar had to say about this car at the Facebook page
Quote:
History Is Made Every Day
While it makes some of us feel pretty old, the reality is that the first generation of light rail vehicles is rapidly aging into museum status. Right now, the Western Railway Museum is fund raising to preserve the last P2020 light rail vehicle from Los Angles, #164. This was one of 15 Nippon Sharyo cars that arrived in 1995.
At 26 years old, this car would seem to be a youngster from what we are used to seeing in rail museums. But we forget that some of the cars of the North Shore Line were just 33 years old when they went to museums, and the Milwaukee streetcars that were preserved were only 34 years old when they became museum pieces - and both of those in an era when they ran cars until they were nearly falling apart.
https://www.wrm.org/fundraising-campaig ... ro-car-164
While it makes some of us feel pretty old, the reality is that the first generation of light rail vehicles is rapidly aging into museum status. Right now, the Western Railway Museum is fund raising to preserve the last P2020 light rail vehicle from Los Angles, #164. This was one of 15 Nippon Sharyo cars that arrived in 1995.
At 26 years old, this car would seem to be a youngster from what we are used to seeing in rail museums. But we forget that some of the cars of the North Shore Line were just 33 years old when they went to museums, and the Milwaukee streetcars that were preserved were only 34 years old when they became museum pieces - and both of those in an era when they ran cars until they were nearly falling apart.
https://www.wrm.org/fundraising-campaig ... ro-car-164
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=102 ... 3420198070