 |
| |
|
|||||||||||
| Length over Anticlimbers 60' 2.5" |
Width at Door Sills 10' 0" |
Total Weight 84,000-84,500 lbs. |
Height from Railhead 12' 2" |
Height, Railhead to Floor 3' 9 1/8" |
Seating Capacity 56 |
The pre-war fleet of subway cars built for the city's Independent Subway under contracts R-1, R-4, R-6, R-7, and R-9 (collectively known by subway fans nowadays as the R-9s or "arnines") consisted of 1,703 nearly identical cars, numbered 100-1802, delivered between 1930 and 1940. When the first order of 300 cars, under contract R-1, was announced, the Electric Railway Journal reported in November 1928:
The New York City Board of Transportation announced today that it will soon advertise for bids for the construction of 300 steel cars for service on the Eighth Avenue-Central Park West-Washington Heights line of the new subway system. ... For nearly a year, the members of the board and its engineers have been consulting and conducting research on the design of a steel car. As a result it is expected that the cars of the city's new subway system will afford greater capacity and facility, will be faster in operation and have less crowding for the amount of traffic anticipated than other cars now in use in the city.
The new cars, as designed, will be 60 ft. 6 in. long, 10 ft. wide and 12 ft. high. The length will be 9 ft. and 2 in. longer than the Interborough Rapid Transit Company cars and about 7 ft. shorter than the single steel cars now used by the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit company. They will permit easy movement of passengers through the end doors between cars, while the train is in motion. The width and height of the new cars will be the same as the width and height of the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit company cars. The new cars will have four double doors on each side, each doorway being 3 ft. 10 in. wide. ...
The arrangement of the seats is somewhat similar to the arrangement now in existence in the B.M.T. cars, but in the city's new subway cars there is to be 2 in. more knee room between crossseats than in the B.M.T. cars. Each car will seat 60 passengers, and when filled with a standing load, each car will have a capacity of 282 passengers. The station platforms are 660 ft. in length, enough to accommodate a train of eleven cars, nearly 30 per cent more than the longest B.M.T. train and 55 per cent more than the present Interborough trains of ten cars each.
The cars will be provided with white-enameled hand straps in front of the seats and vertical stanchions near the doors. The seats will be of heavy, natural-colored rattan. Illuminated route or destination signs will be installed on the sides and at both ends of cars. These signs will carry a designated route number indicating the particular line the train is operating over similar to route numbers now in use on some of the bus lines. Each car will be equipped with five ceiling fans. The equipment of each car such as doors, fans, lights, etc., will be connected to permit operation from one or more positions between cars on the train.
The Eighth Avenue line of the Independent wasn't to open until 1932, and the line to Queens not until 1933. Without a subway line to run them on, the first delivery of R-1 cars was tested on the BMT's Sea Beach line in 1931. In October, 1931, a second order of identical cars was been placed. Electric Railway Journal reported:
The cost of 300 additional [R-4] cars fully equipped for service on the... new city subway system will be about 27 per cent less than that of the 300 cars [R-1] ordered eighteen months ago, according to the Board of Transportation.... The lowest bid of $6,326,400 for the construction of 300 was submitted by the American Car & Foundry Company, the builder of the first 300 cars. Board of Transportation engineers calculate that the contract awards on the basis of the lowest bids would provide 300 fully equipped cars for $8,546,400, or $28,488 per car, as compared with $11,376,397, or $37,921 per car, for the order of eighteen months ago.
Further orders for nearly identical cars were placed under contracts R-6 (three subcontracts), R-7 (four subcontracts) and R-9 (two subcontracts). Most of the cars were retired by 1970, with a few soldiering on until March 31, 1977, when the remaining cars of contract R-9 were operating on the BMT Eastern Division (today's J line).
Several cars of the "Arnine" fleet have been preserved on NYCT property, or at other railroad museums. Cars 100, 484, and 1575 were the core of the New York Transit Museum's initial exhibit when the museum opened in 1976. These cars remained on static exhibit there until 2003, when these three cars operated a charity fan trip. Since 2003, several other "Arnine" cars have been restored to operable condition, and the museum train now consists of: 100, 381, 401, 484, 1000, 1300, 1575, 1802. Cars 103, 923, and 925 are also retained on the NYCT property for parts or future restoration. Operable "Arnines" are also included on the rosters of the Seashore Trolley Museum (800, 1440) and the Shore Line Trolley Museum (1689). See below for more details of preserved cars.
| Preserved (Or Saved for Preservation) |
Converted to Work Service (Might Still Exist) |
Wrecked/Damaged in Accident (Possibly Repaired) |
| 100 | Operable. Part of New York Transit Museum fleet. Was restored to operable condition and operated the first R-type fan trip in many years on 6/8/2003.
| ||||
| 103 | Owned by Railway Preservation Corp. Had experimental Axiflow fans installed in 1947.
| ||||
| 175 | At Seashore Trolley Museum, Kennebunk, Maine. Stripped, truckless, and used only for storage. Two of its side doors were donated to R4 491.
| ||||
| 381 | Operable. Owned by Railway Preservation Corp. Restored to operating condition in 2004 and used in the Transit Museum's museum train parade weekend of 10/23-24/2004.
| ||||
| 401 (aka 491) | Operable. Formerly used as a training car at Jamaica Yard and numbered 491. Was moved to Coney Island in 1998 for restoration. Two missing side doors were provided by R1 175.
| ||||
| 484 | Survives at New York Transit Museum. Outfitted with "bullseye" lighting and experimental PA system in 1946. Operable (operated the first R-type fan trip in many years on 6/8/2003, plus several others).
| ||||
| 800 | Operable. At Seashore Trolley Museum.
| ||||
| 825 | Survives at Trolley Museum of New York.
| ||||
| 923, 925 | Converted to revenue collection cars R247, R248. Survive at Coney Island Yard, owned by Railway Preservation Corp.
| ||||
| 978 | The carbody of R6 978 has lived at Golden's Deli, in the Staten Island Mall, 2845 Richmond Avenue, since 1985.
| ||||
| 983 | The carbody of R6-3 983 was recently rediscovered on private property in Jacksonville, FL. It is being used as a storage shed.
| ||||
| 1000 | Operational. Stored at Coney Island Yard for many years; owned by Railway Preservation Corp. Restored to operational status and operated first Nostalgia Train trip on 8/2/2009.
| ||||
| 1144 | Survives at Buckinghamshire Railway Centre, England, United Kingdom. 1144 info page at BRC.
| ||||
| 1300 | Owned by Railway Preservation Corp.; stored at Coney Island Yard for many years; moved to 207th Street Yard in 2004 for restoration; ran first trip 8/21/2005 on a Transit Museum Nostalgia Train ride to the Rockaways.
| ||||
| 1440 | Survives at Seashore Trolley Museum in operational condition.
| ||||
| 1575 | Involved in a wreck in 1946. Overhauled and modified into the R-10 prototype car, and re-entered service 6/30/1947. Prototype involved body and interior only, not mechanics. The 1575 was only able to run with other R1-9 types, never with R-10 cars. Survives at New York Transit Museum in operable condition (operated the first R-type fan trip in many years on 6/8/2003). (Click to view R7A 1575 Datasheet in PDF format)
| ||||
| 1689 | Survives at Shore Line Trolley Museum. Operational.
| ||||
| 1801 | Survives at New York State Museum, Albany, New York. Moved to the museum from Coney Island 1979 or 1980.
| ||||
| 1802 | Owned by Railway Preservation Corp. Stored at Coney Island Yard for many years; recently was moved to the New York Transit Museum. Restored to operating condition and operated with the other R1/R9 museum cars in holiday service beginning 11/27/2004.
|
|
http://www.nycsubway.org/cars/independent_fleet.html
Copyright © 1995-2005 www.nycsubway.org. This site is not affiliated with any transit agency or provider. |
