Prototype Tours - Les Brandt, chairman
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Prototype Tours - Les Brandt, chairman

Posted by TC Carr in

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.