Radio Shack Selling Subway Cars on eBay

David Cantrell writes "The Radio Shack Corporation (formerly the Tandy Corporation) headquarters in Fort Worth, TX was one of the only companies in the world to have its own private subway system. Its main purpose in life was to move employees from their parked cars to the office building. About a year or so ago, Radio Shack decided the subway system was no longer needed and they shut it down permanently. Well, they are now selling the subway cars on eBay. For $5000US, you can get your very own Radio Shack Subway Car. Rails sold separately. Click for the eBay auction page."

Is this the one?

[Bartmoss]

I never heard of such a thing. I think this is the subway [nycsubway.org] in question. Some pictures and a movie on that site. Pretty cool, but then again, nobody has yet bid on ebay which should tell ya something :)

it goes underground a bit r/o

[polished look 2]

It is a light rail system for most of its track but as it enters the Tandy Center, it goes through a tunnel.

Anyway, the rail system itself is very old and goes back to a previous merchandiser in Fort Worth, Lennings or something similar. They were pretty famous because they were the department store in Fort Worth (and the surrounding small cities) for a while.

Re:Is this the one?

[bear_phillips]

Yep that is it. Radio Shack (aka Tandy). Has a mal l with their corporate headquarters. Employees and mall shoppers could park in the subway lot which was a few blocks away and down a hill. They could then ride to the mall in an airconditioned subway car. Much better than walking up the hill on 110 degree Texas summer day.

They recently sold the mall and coporate headquarters and are building a new headquarters a few miles away.

there are two side-by-side tracks in the tunnel...

[polished look 2]

Perhaps its an improvement since you were last there, but there are two side-by-side tracks in the tunnel so I do not see any compelling reason why they could not move two trains through the tunnel although the two tracks converge into one track at the end of the tunnel/at the Tandy Center.

for the urban explorers

[cr@ckwhore]

Here's a link I just turned up with a quick google search that has some pics and information about the subway itself. These will be nice tunnels to explore in a few years.

http://web.presby.edu/~jtbell/transit/FtWorth/

Re:Love "Shack"?

[chmod000]

Comes from a time when all the technology was banished into a separate structure, as in "transmitter shack", "ham shack" (amateur radio), and so forth. Sometimes it was a literal shack, since technology in every age attracts the geeks and repels the Martha Stewarts.

Not sure who will want this

[robo45h]

If you read the eBay ad carefully -- and know a little about trains and streetcars -- it turns out this was more of a "subway surface streetcar" line than a pure subway. The car itself did not start out life as a subway car; it was an old "PCC" streetcar. Tandy remodeled it extensively in the '70s, basically bringing it down to the bare frame. Thus, any Trolly Museum that would be looking for a PCC will not get much by buying this other than a few spare parts and a frame. Perhaps some museum would want it as a novelty. If you want a good place to see some authentic PCC streetcars still in active service, visit San Francisco -- they purchased a bunch from Philadelphia for tourist attraction.

Re:Not sure who will want this

[ocelotbob]

Museums eat this sort of thing up. It's an oddity, a rarity, something that they can put on a full-color brochure showing the breadth of their collection. If/when this does get to a museum, it'll probably become much like the Descanso Car [oerm.org], an oddity with a great story behind it.

Re:Love "Shack"?

[zulux]

I never understood how the word "Shack" was supposed to convey competence with technology.

When radio's were added to ships early in the last century - they were usually in little 'shacks' on the main deck for several reasons: Better antenna reception, and so the operator could see - to orient the antenna properly, and more importantly, to show-off to the paying passengers that the ship had a 'wireless' on board.

Re:Just sparked a weird fantasy...

[op00to]

Transportation planners thought of this -- mainly in California. They call it "Personal Rapid Transit", and it takes all of the bad aspects of cars (traffic jams, wasted space, etc) and combines it with all the bad aspects of light rail (limited infrastructure, expensive) -- I am by no means advocating using a car, but personal rapid transit is a bad idea. It's much more cost effective to use larger cars and have established routes. The technology is there, and some towns even have trolley tracks buried underneath 2 feet of concrete, but it is just so wasteful and the benefits gained by having PRT (being able to go where you want to go, when you want to go there) can be found in light rail if a lot of time and planning goes into picking where stops go.

like BART?

[EvilStein]

"Remodeled in 1974 by RadioShack/Tandy Corporation to pattern design after Bay Area Rapid Transit vehicles operating in the San Francisco Bay area."

Those things look nothing like the BART cars. First off, BART trains are 3-10 cars, and you can move between cars if you like, and only a couple seats are back against the wall (near the doors, for seniors & disabled folks)

And BART knew better than to use that ungodly red color. What is it with companies in Texas using awful paint schemes? Southwest Airlines is next on the list.. "Hey, we got a bunch of this brownish paint.. really cheap!" ;)

Re:Is this the one?

[mattsucks]

[IAAFWR: I Am A Ft Worth Resident]

The "subway" was hella-convenient getting into downtown at crowded times, hot or cold. It was free, it ran right into the heart of downtown, and the only two stops it made were in the basement of the Tandy Center building and in the remote parking lot. Seems like I recall it (the subway) held the record for the shortest subway line in the world when it was active. I doubt it was even a mile long, but sometimes that could be the longest mile.

Lots of Ft Worth residents were sad to see it go. Progress, schmogress.

The Lathe of Heaven

[Ann Elk]

The Tandy Subway (and other areas around the Tandy headquarters) are featured in the movie "The Lathe of Heaven", based on Ursula le Guin's book of the same title. Buy a car, and own a piece of sci-fi history...

PCCs also in Boston

[awkwardone]

The PCC cars are still in service on part of the Boston mass transit system. There is a short (two miles long) streetcar line on the southern portion of the Red Line. After the normal heavy rail subway ends at Ashmont, you can board a PCC to travel to Mattapan. From what I understand they haven't really been renovated since World War II. Eventually the MBTA is supposed to update the line, but the way things go in Boston, that could be years from now...