prototype tours
Trinity Railway Express
“The Trinity Railway Express Corporate Headquarters and Maintenance Facilities”
On this tour you will visit the Trinity Railway Express Corporate Headquarters and Maintenance Facilities where TRE’s extensive fleet is maintained on a daily basis for busy commuter activity. In 2008 over 2.5 million passengers traveled between the cities of Dallas… the online suburbs… and Ft Worth on the TRE.
You will be able to examine all of the equipment used by TRE from the operator’s perspective cab-side, to the maintenance technician’s view of the equipment in the shops… Equipment ranging from EMD motive power to the “HEP” system (Head End Power) which is an ancillary CAT diesel that provides “Hotel Power” to the coaches.
McKinney Avenue Transit Authority
A behind the scenes tour of the Maintenance & Restoration Barn, and FREE trolley ride to boot!
2009 LSR Convention Prototype Tour: The "McKinney Avenue Transit Authority"
In 1981, while removing the asphalt and concrete to restore the original brick streets on historic McKinney and Cole Avenue in Dallas, it was discovered that there were over 4800 feet of the old Dallas Railway and Terminal streetcar track still in place. That discovery sparked an idea, and after hundreds of volunteer hours were spent restoring the original 4 vintage units, on July 22, 1989, “MATA”, The McKinney Avenue Transit Authority re-introduced streetcars to the Dallas
20 years later, with funding, help from local volunteers who spent endless hours restoring numerous vintage streetcars, and miles of additional track being laid, the MATA has evolved from a tourist attraction to one of the finest transit systems of its type in the Southwest. In 2008 MATA carried over 290,000 riders.
BNSF Operations Center
BNSF Offers "All Facilities" Tour
at the 2009 NMRA/LSR Convention
Larry Swigert, 2009 LSR Convention Publicity and Communications Chair
FRIDAY, JUNE 5th PROTOTYPE TOUR: “The BNSF Network Operations Center”:
Ever wonder how BNSF dispatches its nationwide rail system?
Join us in Dallas-Ft. Worth at this year's NMRA/LSR SUPER Convention, the "Trinity River Interchange", for a rare "all facilities" tour inside the BNSF Network Operations Center in Fort Worth and see how BNSF dispatches nearly the entire railroad from one room in the corporate headquarters in Fort Worth.
At this location BNSF has 4 vintage business cars.
They have been carefully and totally restored in every detail.
Prototype Tours - Les Brandt, chairman
Prototype Tours- Les Brandt
You may have already heard the news about Prototype Tours – You got to have a say in what tours we present! There are so many great prototype things to see in the area we just wanted you to have a say in which ones we go after.
Well, here are the three that made the grade!
Prototype Tour #1 - Friday Morning
BNSF Network Operations Center <click here>
Ever wonder how BNSF dispatches its nationwide rail system? Join us on a tour of the BNSF Network Operations Center in Fort Worth and see how they do it.
BNSF dispatches nearly the entire railroad from one room in the corporate headquarters in Fort Worth. BNSF conducts a tour starting at the main corporate entrance where a museum and four business cars are on display. The business cars are used for BNSF business meetings.
Prototype Tour#2 - Thursday Morning
McKinney Avenue Transit Authority <click here>
Ride back into history on the only transit line in North Texas that operates lovingly restored antique electric streetcars running on some of Dallas's oldest original streetcar tracks. A ride on any of our cars — Rosie (1909), The Green Dragon (1913), Petunia (1920), Matilda (1925) or air-conditioned Winnie (1945) — is an experience to treasure. Our tour will include a special tour of the shops where the streetcars are maintained and restored.
Prototype Tour#3 - Saturday Morning
Trinity Rail Express Maintenance Center <click here>
Trinity Railway Express (TRE) provides local commuter service between downtown Fort Worth and downtown Dallas on the former Rock Island main line, which was also used by the Fort Worth &Denver and the Frisco. TRE operates the largest fleet of RDCs in the world—they were built in 1954 and owe their long lives partly to the completely stainless steel construction of the car bodies. TRE maintains these cars and the bilevel cars and locomotives at the shop in Irving, halfway between Fort Worth and Dallas. Our tour will show us how TRE maintains it RDCs and bilevel commuter cars and motive power.
The Trinity Railway Express is a cooperative service provided by the Fort Worth Transportation Authority (The T) and Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART).The TRE links downtown Fort Worth, downtown Dallas and DFW Airport. Scheduled train service is provided Monday through Saturday. No service is available on Sunday.
What'd Ya Say?
October 2009
You may have already heard the news about Prototype Tours – You get to have a say in what tours we present! There are so many great prototype things to see in the area we just wanted you to have a say in which ones we go after.
Go to the voting tab and vote for your favorite. Here is the current list under consideration:
- Dart Facility
- TRE Shops
- Trinity rail plant
- McKinney Avenue Trolley
- UP Intermodal yard
- Age of Steam Museum
- BNSF Control Center
- BNSF Aliance yard
- Grapevine Vintage RR shops
- Grain Elevator
- Garland short line “DINGO”
- Six Flags shops
Les Brandt.
