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from this.....
to this?
Flexing at Snake Hill Rd in Ayer; photo by Maclean Woodbury
During the month of August 1997, the MBTA tested the Flexliner in revenue service. While there is no word as yet as to whether the "T" will purchase any flexliners, by all accounts the train was well received by the riding public. Any purchase of the self propelled trains would break a 20 year tradition of locomotive hauled trains ( By way of explanation, from the late fifties until 1978, B&M commuters were hauled primarily by Buddliners, which were self-propelled. In February of '78, the New England area was creamed by one of those "once in a lifetime" storms which dumped the better part of 4' of snow on top of the 2-3' we already had. Since the MBTA were unable to move through this mess due to the limited power of the Budd's, the decision was made to start using locomotive powered trains. The Budd's were lobotomised and became passenger cars).
I'd hoped to add some technical type stuff to this page, but when I checked the MBTA homepage there wasn't ANY mention of the Flexliner at all. Nada, zip, nothing. Go figure. I will mention that it did send like a bus.However I did some more digging and did find a site that has some info on the Flexliner IC3:
At the willows in Ayer; two photos by Doug Trueblood
Pulling into the MBTA stop in Ayer; photo by Fred Kearns
Last Run, August 28; Photo by Doug Trueblood
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