SOAC: America's Luxury Subway Train of the Future [Documentary]
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- Опубликовано: 31 май 2024
- Note: Many of the images in this video are from: www.nycsubway.org/wiki/SOAC:_...
In the early 1970s, the US Dept. of Transporation set out on developing the ultimate heavy rail rapid transit subway car that can be used by all five existing legacy transit systems in the United States.
It was called SOAC: The State-of-the-Art Car. SOAC was to represent the best of existing technology and design concepts, and then demonstrate it to the various transit systems, and the riding public.
The SOAC train was built by the St. Louis Car Company. It was unveiled in Pueblo, Colorado in August, 1973.
In 1974, it began its demonstration tour of five cities. The systems it visited were:
New York
Boston
Chicago
Cleveland
Philadelphia
SOAC ran for 104 operational days and carried 312,000 passengers.
The train also ran on PATCO for a while after official testing was complete.
The two-car train then went in for further testing and evaluation.
SOAC now resides at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine, in an unrefurbished state.
00:00 Introduction to the SOAC Video
01:10 What is SOAC?
04:40 The 8 Objectives of SOAC
08:40 SOAC Dedication
09:21 SOAC Accident
10:03 SOAC Milestones
10:17 SOAC Demonstration Schedule
12:00 SOAC in the Alan R. Lind Book
14:09 SOAC and the R-44 Subway Car
14:43 SOAC Front End
15:06 SOAC Interior Design
16:29 SOAC Testing in New York City
18:16 SOAC Testing in Chicago
19:00 SOAC Testing in Philadelphia
19:40 SOAC Post-Testing
20:06 Cleveland's Criticism
20:22 Motormen's Reaction
20:48 Influence of SOAC
22:06 SOAC Today at the Seashore Trolley Museum
22:39 A Future that Never Was
23:30 Conclusion
#subway #rapidtransit #luxurytrain #luxurytrains #luxurytravel 
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You did a great job of research and documentation of the SOAC
Thank you so much for watching and for your really great comment! I absolutely appreciate it and I'm glad you found it interesting!!
Nice video. I find it interesting that the train went on multiple systems with seemingly little problems in 1974. Today in Boston new trains are long overdue with multiple problems. The opportunity to see the SOAC train at the Seashore trolly museum is a good one. Its funny how the low density car actually had tables in it.
Thanks for watching and for your comment! Yes, it's amazing it was able to be placed into service with no major issues, and on five different transit system, no less!
Not that strange as you might think. Here in Edmonton we have seating arranged "conversation pit" style which is 4 seats facing each other where a table would and could be.. It's popular except it encourages layabouts to put their feet up like a sofa at home.. These were introduced in 1978 when this luxury-style of transit thinking was common. Only downside? If you've sat on them you've sat where someone has almost certainly stuck their feet quite recently so I always stand instead...
This is awesome! I have been looking for more information on the SOAC- and this was perfect:)
Thank you for watching and for your comment! I am very happy you liked the SOAC video!!
Awesome 💯😎
Thank you very, very much for watching and for your great comment!
Great video!! I had done some limited research on this for an introductory history course not too long ago, as part of a presentation that I chose to do on a brief history of the development of urban streetcar and metro systems. Unfortunately, due to length constraints, the only content I could really include was an image from the Seashore Trolley Museum and a brief retrospective. This was a great watch, especially to provide more context for how it was really like in its time, as well as the booklets you held on to for all these years. Amazing job, I will be spending my time watching your other videos over the coming days!
Thank you very much for watching, and for your very positive comment! I'm really happy you enjoyed this video on the SOAC!
Thanks for covering this interesting forgotten train!
Thank you for your comment and for watching!
Features of the Budd Universal Transit Car are also used in the rolling stock of the Los Angles Metro. The rolling stock used by Baltimore, Miami and Los Angles are operationally compatible. The only other transit agencies that have identical loading gauges and close operationally compatibility are MARTA and WMATA. All five of these agencies along with PATCO use the same basic high frequency track circuit signaling system to display cab signals / speed commands in the operators cab.
Thank you for watching and for your interesting comments!
3:20-The ironic thing about a company based in St. Louis, Missouri building subway cars is that the city of St. Louis itself *_had no subway system of its own_* ! It was only decades later that the city of St. Louis got a light rail system built.
Thank you for watching, and for your very interesting comment about St. Louis!
This is the best video I've seen on the subject, albeit a heartbreaking one about the loss of American technological prowess over an industry once dominated by Made in America success stories... I really wish those cars were either put into production or at least used as concepts for the next generation of trains. Alas that didn't happen either and now even the most "modern" trains in the USA still look like something stuck in the 1940's or maybe 1950's...
Meanwhile, Here in Canada? A hodge-podge of system types each offering their own vision of the future that largely didn't arrive... I.e. Montreal's rubber-tyre metro, Vancouver's automated Skytrain that uses LIM's and software, Toronto's unique gauge streetcar and metro systems and Edmonton and Calgary, Alberta's German-inspired U-bahn like LRT networks that use high floor Siemens trains... Montreal has now even added a strange yet wonderful new automated LRT that uses overhead wires and will soon be the largest automated rapid transit network in the America's outside of Vancouver built entirely by a private concession of pension funds and government contractors...
Thank you very much for watching and for your comment! Very interesting info, and I'm glad you liked the video!
Rode SOAC in Chicago (Skokie Swift) numerous times during its two week demonstration period, plus spent that entire last Saturday (Feb 13, 1975??) in the north car. I have those booklets somewhere.
Great to hear you rode the SOAC, too! Thank you for watching and for your comment!
I saw the SOAC train in kennebunkport recently
Great! Thank you for watching and for your comment!
The R44s were quieter and smoother than anything that came before. I remember the first time I rode one in '71 or early '72. It looks like SOAC took their ride quality + quietude right from the R44s.
Thank you for watching and for your comment! Yes, the R44s were very revolutionary!
The SOAC were based on the R44s
Very interesting video. By any chance, would you mind publicly sharing the scans of the booklets?
Thank you for watching and for your comment! I'm not totally sure how to best publicly share the scans...
Love the acronyms
Thank you for watching and for your comment!
Suggestion for a future video: The Expo Express from Montreal's Expo '67. Was there and rode. I understand that they (8 sets of 6 cars) were almost purchased for Staten Island.
That's a great idea - will keep it in mind! After I read your comment, I recalled reading that in a book I have, and yes, you are correct! Thank you for watching and for your comment!
@@JeffreyOrnstein It would have been nice to see them in service in Toronto as they were almost mechanically identical to the H-1 (?) series built around the same time. But it was not to be.
This was a rather pretty interesting train at the time. I wonder how it would have faired these days... .
Thank you for watching! I would think it would be well-received by the riding public due its plush and colorful interior. But anything beyond a few weeks in service, and the interior fittings would be shredded, unfortunately!
In Philly the interiors would have been burned and shredded in a few days
@@AntLox LOL. It actually spent more than a month in Philly, and incredibly, it survived intact, with no significant vadalism.
I rode the soac cars in Boston, 1974
Great! Thank you for watching and for your comment!