50 years in service
Windows 98 and spare parts via Ebay: How San Francisco’s subway is kept alive despite completely outdated technology
© Michael Ho Wai Lee/ / Picture Alliance
San Francisco and Silicon Valley are the heart of the digital world. The subway, however, comes from a different millennium. Many of the trains have been running for almost 50 years. And will only be kept in circulation with a lot of improvisation.
They were state of the art in their day. Designed by an aerospace engineering company, futuristic-looking aluminum cars began cruising San Francisco’s newly introduced subway system in 1972. But while the world kept turning and Silicon Valley changed the world, the clocks on the rails in San Francisco are turning more slowly. And present the technicians with challenges that were unforeseen at the time.
Because on the 50th anniversary of the “BART” subway system, the local newspaper “Mercury News” draws a frightening conclusion: Even today, dozens of the very first cars introduced at that time are still in service. They have been in use for 50 years and have to be serviced with technology that is no longer available.
zombie operating system
When a train breaks down, technician John Allen pulls out an ancient laptop, the newspaper reports. In order to be able to read out the error system of the trains, he needs Windows 98 – in order to be able to start the even older DOS system there.
Spare parts for the trains are also a real problem. Because everything was designed in-house, you can’t just fall back on standard components. Instead, junkyards are searched for. “We are really on the road with photos to different manufacturers and on Ebay to find unusual parts.” When the floor had to be replaced after a car fire, they developed their own tools for the job. “We often don’t even know what the parts are called,” says Allen.
Shortage of spare parts
The main problem is the fancy design of the aluminum trains. With their large, slightly rounded windows and an operating system that enables almost autonomous driving, they were the model for other systems, for example in Atlanta. But because they built their own cars, there are almost no parts that could also be used in San Francisco.
Even defective trains are carefully dismantled so that the parts can be reused. One of the glass panes, which is difficult to produce, is available as a replacement, explains the operator of a train depot. “The biggest challenge is finding parts that just aren’t made anymore,” mechanic Mark Allen told the newspaper. When asked which parts this applies to, the answer is clear: “pretty much all”.
The end is near
However, the need for maintenance is high. Although a third of the fleet has already been replaced by a more modern model, 56 of the 450 original cars purchased in 1972 still drive through the city every day. Most of the rest of the fleet is a bit newer, but also dates back to the 1970s and 1980s.
For the technicians, this means going on the hunt for spare parts for the notebooks as well. After all, Windows 98 was replaced by Windows XP more than 21 years ago. “I was in an engineering office and he had about 40 ancient computers lying around,” Allen says. “A part is pulled from one, another from the second and so on. Just to keep a laptop running.”
In the next few years, the old trains will finally be retired. With a billion-dollar program, the city is working on replacing the fleet with modern cars. The old ones are to be scrapped, some are already planned for museums, as an attraction in a beer garden and the like. “It makes me a little sad,” Allen admits. “But out with the old, in with the new.”
Source:Mercury News