Three retired BART railcars now sit open for exploring inside a museum building in Suisun City, giving Bay Area transit fans a rare chance to walk through the system’s original 1970s rolling stock. The new interactive exhibit opened during Transit Month and the week of BART’s 54th anniversary, letting visitors board the cars and dig into the technology, design, and history behind the region’s first automated rapid transit system.
According to a post from BART, the exhibit at the Western Railway Museum allows guests to step aboard three legacy cars rather than just view them behind glass. The museum’s display, per the Western Railway Museum, consists of A Car 1164, B Car 1834, and C Car 329 — together forming the only complete preserved three-car train from BART’s original 669-car fleet.
A new interactive exhibit at the Western Railway Museum in Suisun City lets visitors step aboard three legacy BART cars and explore the technology, design, and history of the system.The opening arrives during Transit Month and the week of BART’s 54th anniversary. pic.twitter.com/bwqSEilgLM
— BART (@SFBART) August 24, 2026
A Car That Helped Build BART’s Automated Future
The exhibit’s lead cab car, A Car 1164, carries a particularly deep backstory. It was originally built by Rohr Corporation as Car 164 and served for decades as BART’s primary Engineering Test Car during the system’s early developmental era, according to BART, before later being rebuilt into revenue service. That test car played a role in troubleshooting the automated controls and transit technology that defined BART’s earliest years…