James Bradley, Jr. Wrote:
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> It would take more than re-gauging the rail cars.
> BART uses third rail, so trolley poles would needs
> to be added to the BART cars since the museums do
> not use third rail. BART also doesn't use
> standard couplers, so BART's couplers would need
> to be replaced with standard couplers in order for
> the BART cars to be interchanged (switched) with
> the other equipment already at the museum. The
> last problem is that BART cars use high-platform
> loading, not standard step loading like the
> historic cars. You would either need to rebuild
> the BART cars so they had steps for loading, or
> build a platform that the BART cars could load and
> unload from.
>
> Given all of the changes that would need to be
> made to BART's cars to make them usable at a
> museum, the cars would lose their historic value
> (if any).

BART cars with trolley poles would certainly be a novel sight, but not unique. The Shore Line Trolley Museum in Connecticut uses trolley poles to run their New York subway cars.