You may have been on it, or you may have seen it go “rohr”-ing past you. What could it be?
I recently purchased a number plate from a retired BART train over at RailGoods.com. This was the plate on a B-type BART train car — specifically car number 1648 — made by Rohr Industries in 1974. It was retired from service after 6 million miles.
All of the original BART fleet was made by Rohr and had two types of train cars: A and B cars. A cars have an operator’s cab at one end and feature a distinctive sloped “nose” design. B cars were the middle type of car, featuring no operator cab. In the 1980’s BART added a new type of train car, the C car which features a flat front with a small operator cab that could be closed off and used as a middle car.
After buying this big metal plate I wasn’t exactly sure how to frame it. So I took it down the street to Underglass Custom Framing and let them do their thing. I’ll admit I was a bit skeptical of the frame choice they recommended, but I also have no problem deferring to professionals. In this case the co-owner of the shop, Eric (no relation) not only picked out a frame color that matches the number plate perfectly, but also treated the tops of the screws he used to mount the plate so that they appear to match its wear and tear.
Now that this plate is mounted it feels like a museum worthy piece. For some strange museum that keeps parts of old subway cars, I guess.