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You are sitting down, right? Some of those new Orange Line cars could start opening their doors to passengers this week

UPDATE: Wednesday, mid-day-ish.

WCVB reports. Fans of humid, wood-paneled rec rooms on wheels don't have to worry just yet, though - most of the trains that will continue to lumber between Oak Grove and Forest Hills will still be those grime and rust-coated 1987 cars you've come to love.

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"This week, I'm really gonna ride a new Orange Line train!"

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because of switching problems at Wellington."

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Ridership tanks this week. Good time to do it.

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Sure, there have been a bunch of other issues with the Carter era cars, but I've never felt too humid in the summertime while riding them.

Conversely, I decided to cool off on the commuter rail on one of those scorching Saturdays last month and was at first in a stifling car.

But don't confuse my defense of those Thunder Bay manufactured vehicles as a love of them. Perhaps I'll shed a tear when the last one goes out of service, but I felt the same way when I got rid of my 20 year old car with holes in the flood that, interestingly enough, did not have AC. Still loved my new car.

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You have clearly never ridden the orange line at rush hour.

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And if you are conflating the heat generated by fellow riders with an AC failure, you should stop standing too close to your fellow riders.

And again I will note that I rode the trains that were on the line before there and remember when the T avoided turning the AC on for the buses (although I also remember the buses having no AC)

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Suggesting that you "stop standing too close to your fellow riders" kinda lends credence to the idea that you have not in fact ridden the Orange Line at rush hour.

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You have been lucky. I don’t run into it a lot, but the times I have, it’s been miserable. You just sit and sweat, contemplate whether you can sprint to the next car, and speculate whether the ac is out for the whole train.

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I usually sit (or stand) in the southernmost 3 cars. Maybe the AC’s just horrible at the end everyone downtown boards on.

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When I board a train (or bus) I always move away from the doors. My gut is that in the summer, if you are by the doors when the open the humidity hits you.

My advice to you (and Adam) is to step into the middle of the car in the summer. The experience will be nice. Or at least don't crowd the doors.

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I sit at the end of the train, as far as possible from the door (the end that doesn’t have a driver’s compartment). I sit in one of the middle cars. When the ac is working, which to the credit of the MBTA workers, it usually is, it’s ok. But the days the ac is out, it’s misery. I’m glad you’ve avoided it. And with the new cars coming, hopefully you’ll never experience it.

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Or maybe I've jinxed myself.

And I'm not speaking figuratively. I've been on trains that have broken down. Recently, in fact, but somehow the AC has never let me down on a humid day.

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I hope I haven’t jinxed you! It isn’t common, you just have to hold out a little longer. My fear is that they’ll ease up on maintaining the old cars since they know the new ones are so near. I very much hope to be wrong about that though!

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If only. That may have been when those cars started running on their current alignment on the Southwest Corridor, but they first came in to service 1979-1981.

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...to finally become a tiny bit less rusty.

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In my experience, the Orange Line trains are the only branch that consistently stink. Literally.

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so one train set...
whoopie!!

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But will their debut in revenue service be like the Green Line Type Nines? A photo blitz media spectacular... followed by several months of them being withdrawn because more motorfolk need to be put through the training class and get qualified on them?

Now for any of you intrepid railfans out there in UHub-land...

So if this inaugural trip is to be Wednesday "midday-ish" the possible first trip could be...

The 12:16PM southbound trip from Oak Grove...

The 2:08PM southbound trip from Oak Grove...

The 2:59PM trip from Wellington to Forest Hills. Pulls out direct as Route 913.

The 12:16PM trip departs Forest Hills northbound at 1:00PM.

The 2:08PM trip departs Forest Hills NB at 2:56PM.

The 2:59PM trip departs Forest Hills NB at 3:39PM.

NOTE: Trips are per the timetable and thus are "subject to traffic delay." :P

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I can't imagine he'll pass up a chance to cut a ribbon

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I would guess an extra run as directed, not in the timetable

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But does that have a revenue pull-out from Wellington Yard?

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Will miss the sweet scent of weed and urine mixed with despair. Does the MBTA gift shop have that in a candle or something? #nostalgia

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The OL cars were around in the era when smoking was still allowed on them. The floors are sheet vinyl containing asbestos. Every surface probably has trace amounts of leaded gasoline fumes on them, not to mention leaked mercury from the fluorescent lighting, and who knows what else from the gross heavy metal contaminated air in the tunnels. The carpet remnant seats haven't helped with whatever ungodly biological funk they've absorbed since they replaced the vinyl covers either. Seriously, when these cars get scrapped they need to go into one of those toxic waste sites for all eternity.

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Asbestos! Mercury poisoning from cursed light bulbs! Vapors from unleaded gasoline that was discontinued in the 70s and somehow ended up in the fabric of something that uses no gas at all! People used to SMOKE! PPB, PPB!

You strike me as a glass half empty type.

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Smoking has never been allowed in these cars. Asbestos was banned before these cars were built. Where is the leaded gasoline from? Mercury only if the bulbs get broken. Don't know about heavy metal contaminants, but there is grease and oil, non-asbestos brake dust(perhaps some asbestos brake dust from long ago), and carbon dust from motor brushes in all the tunnels.

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to be part of Yankee Candle's new line for this Christmas?

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A few years I got on one of the new New Flyer buses (the 111 to be exact) and I was standing near the driver as we were driving away. I mentioned to the driver how the bus had that "new car" smell.

She replied "Oh yes, this bus has miles on it, it was put into service today"
Me: but I love the smell, sure beats the alternative of BO and stale beer
Her: Oh don't worry within in a week or so it'll be back to the normal scents of weed, BO, stale beer, urine, mixed in with some Axe body spray.

We both laugh..

Sure enough next time I saw her, she was in the new bus, which now reek'd of weed. Oh 111, don't ever change. (/snark)

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and am not surprised, at all.

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What a bunch of whining assholes on here!
You're getting new cars and all you can do is complain about the smells of the old cars.
Be grateful they are here and more coming.
Everybody wants a better T, but they bitch about the work, the delays, the station closings and the smells.

This so Boston!

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We desperately need some relief on the orange line. At rush hour, there are 13 minutes between trains with no announced delays. This has been occurring all summer long. It’s not acceptable. I’m at the point where I feel like I need to get a job within walking distance to my home to preserve what’s left of my sanity.

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...

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The old cars did have a strange odor. And they break down.

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Of all the days to get a ZipCar to do errands...

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