Interesting Article In The Times

Today, The Times has an article that I think regular participants at this Forum will find interesting.

Fair Use:

The average New York City subway car travels roughly 53,000 miles per year across some of the oldest transit infrastructure in the world. Rumbling through a web of grungy tunnels and weather-beaten elevated tracks, the cars are subjected to overcrowding, underfunding, vandalism, garbage and routine wear and tear.

Sometimes it’s a marvel the system functions at all.

To what extent such breaks new ground, I defer to others more familiar with NYCTA affairs than am I.

Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/01/nyre ... -york.html

Most likely behind the paywall. Tip: delete all cookies from NYTimes.com and it should reset your free articles count.

Mr. "Friendly Service Route", I "blew" one of my ten articles a month to share that here.
Sorry to learn you were apparently unable to open.

Here it is again, with my hopes you will be able to access:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/01/nyre ... =url-share

Why they must put a cap on what I share escapes me. I've been reading The Times for some 75 years and I pay over $1600 a year to have "that thump on my porch". As such, I think I do enough as is to be able to share Gray Lady's reporting, absent reselling, however I choose.

Jim (and GBN): Good thought about the NY Times Paywall - my device had problems loading some of the
photos that were posted with the article. I sometimes try to retain items such as this in my History - trouble
is that each time that I may view this it counts up towards any free articles by month - hence a "reset"...

Anyone who has had an opportunity to visit the NYC Transit Coney Island and 207th Street Shops (I have
been to both during either Open Houses and by NRHS Chapter invitation) and taken their tour understand
how important that they both are to keeping the NYC Subway car fleet up and running especially all of the
mechanics and crafts workers of all types - they are the best at what they do behind the scenes at NYCT...

Good preventative and agressive maintenance has helped the NYC Subway system climb out of the "hole"
that the system was in when it hit rock bottom during the 1970s...It took until at least the second half of the
1980s to get the Subway car fleet upgraded with new and rebuilt cars - hard to believe that the author of
this article describes the R62 cars as old remembering them well when they were new compared to the
tired and worn-out IRT cars that they replaced - 1986 if I am correct...I am a big proponent of the use of
stainless steel for all types of passenger rail cars beginning with the products of the Budd Company...

MACTRAXX

Mr. MACTRAXX. the Red, well at least when they were new. IRT cars were "heaven" compared with what they replaced. They were air conditioned and had cushioned seats. Unfortunately, the "slashers" made them the last so equipped.

But during '61-'62, when I could possibly be considered an NYC resident, they were nice to ride on the IRT Lexington Ave. line (what that is in newspeak I'm not sure).

I'm no longer getting old -- I've gotten there -- but I remember when those cars (described in the press as "clear, pure red") entered service, and my recollection, such as it is, is that they were not air-conditioned but had what was called forced-air ventilation, which moved the warm, fetid air around so you could at least feel it moving. However, as Mr. Norman mentions, they were much more comfortable than their IRT predecessors with their leisurely ceiling fans. A co-worker of mine at the time (1959-60) called riding the Lex in rush hour "getting your suit pressed."

On a related note, that was just about when, while NYCTA was firmly announcing that air-conditioning of subway routes was not practicable, the Port Authority, having just taken over the decrepit and destitute Hudson & Manhattan, acquired fully air-conditioned cars for the Hudson Terminal-Newark service which could sit in Newark with all doors open on a hot day and still feel like a walk-in refrigerator when you got on. Boy, did those cars feel good in Lower Manhattan.

Mr. ExCon, here are the IRT Cars I was addressing. How say we defer to our experts around here on NYCTA equipment whether or not these cars were air conditioned.

None of the IRT cars thru the R36 were delivered with air-conditioning with the exception 10 R17 cars 6800-6809 (built in 1955) were delivered with experimental A/C. The A/C units failed and those cars were retrofitted with the standard axiflow fans.

For years it was assumed it could not be done.

Between 1975 and 1982 all cars in the R26, R28, R29, R33 (see note) and R36 were retrofitted with A/C. Since all cars in these orders were 'married pairs" it was accomplished by putting the air compressors under on of the cars in the pair thus serving both cars. Note - the R33S cars were not retrofitted since they were single cars (to serve as the 11th car on the World's Fair/Flushing line service) and it required 2 cars to support A/C.

When the R62 and R62A cars were delivered (between 1984 thru 1987) had the technology advanced enough (for the TA) where A/C units were compact enough to fit in the roof of each car (2 per car).

My reference source (I can't remember everything) is "Evolution of New York City Subways" by Gene Sansone.

Gilbert B Norman wrote: ↑Fri Mar 01, 2024 8:24 pm Mr. "Friendly Service Route", I "blew" one of my ten articles a month to share that here.
Sorry to learn you were apparently unable to open.

Here it is again, with my hopes you will be able to access:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/01/nyre ... =url-share

Why they must put a cap on what I share escapes me. I've been reading The Times for some 75 years and I pay over $1600 a year to have "that thump on my porch". As such, I think I do enough as is to be able to share Gray Lady's reporting, absent reselling, however I choose.

My bad. My device did not show that you’d included the link. I posted to provide the “missing link” to anyone who wanted to see the article.

I’ve been a Times subscriber for the better part of 40 years. I mentioned the paywall as a warning, of sorts, for those non-subscribers who may click the link.

$1,600 a year??? That’s crazy. Go All-Digital Access and read it on a tablet. Even if you have to buy a tablet, you’ll still end up paying half that the first year, and a quarter that once you’ve got the device. I pay about $30/month for access to everything they offer (except, I think, “The Athletic,” which I wouldn’t want anyway). And the paper is never late.

Mr "Friendly Service", there is no question whatever that print newspapers are "priced out of sight" when compared with the digital varietal.

But I very simply do not know how to read a newspaper on the web, so my access to both the Times and Journal sites is simply to "clip" articles that I forward to friends - including those here!!!

Oh, and at 82yo, I'm not about to learn.

I read the article and enjoyed it (I have a digital subscription to the NYT, so had no trouble logging in).
But... it left me with questions.
First off-- how is work allocated between the 207th street and Coney Island locations? Different kinds of work, or are different cars assigned to different shops? (If asked guess, I'd hazard the thought that 207th Street does IRT (= A Division, = lines with numbers) and Cony Island does BMT/IND (= B Division, = routes with letter designations) cars. But I'm sure someone here actually KNOWS!

Remark-- the article says the oldest cars in revenue service date to the 1980s. So (i) NYCTA seems to be working with a 35-40 year expected life span for its cars and (ii) (personal) NO car I rode when I last lived in New York City is still in service: hard to believe!

AllenPHazen wrote: ↑Mon Mar 04, 2024 7:59 pm Remark-- the article says the oldest cars in revenue service date to the 1980s. So (i) NYCTA seems to be working with a 35-40 year expected life span for its cars and (ii) (personal) NO car I rode when I last lived in New York City is still in service: hard to believe!

Welcome to Railroad.net and the NYCT, MTA Subway, PATH and SIRT forum (it is rare anyone recently joining gets welcomed so I took the opportunity to do so).

You are correct in the 35-40 year service life in general. Although the R32/32A cars built in 1964-65 were actually in service longer having been officially retired in January 2022 (that makes nearly 56 years in service for some of those cars). The R46 cars are now the oldest active cars in service (entering service between 1975-1978 making it nearly 50 years of service (and getting them ready to be retired and replaced by R179 and R211A cars - which is currently happening). The R62/62A cars are next going into service in 1984-85 and slated for replacement by the R262 cars around 2030.

Question - what was the last car you rode the last time you lived in NYC? Chances are there is at least one of them in the NY Transit Museum's collection (some of which are still in use for Museum excursions and special occasions).

AllenPHazen wrote: ↑Mon Mar 04, 2024 7:55 pm I read the article and enjoyed it (I have a digital subscription to the NYT, so had no trouble logging in).
But... it left me with questions.
First off-- how is work allocated between the 207th street and Coney Island locations? Different kinds of work, or are different cars assigned to different shops? (If asked guess, I'd hazard the thought that 207th Street does IRT (= A Division, = lines with numbers) and Cony Island does BMT/IND (= B Division, = routes with letter designations) cars. But I'm sure someone here actually KNOWS!

The 207th St shop was actually originally built as part of the IND (8th Av line). It is one of two major overhaul shops (with Coney Island being the other one). A flyover connection was built (I can't find the date) from the elevated IRT Broadway line (A Division) allowing major work to be done on both A and B Division equipment.

Reference point: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_N ... bway_yards

It happened AGAIN - A combination of my device and RR.Net's time limitations cause me to lose a post reply
because of me not taking added notice during extra research which is VERY frustrating...

This time I noticed something that I overlooked in previous instances that this problem arose is that RR.Net
will log you out involuntarily - if that happens you DO lose any work that you have in progress...

I was replying to some of Allan's NYCT car references and lost my train of thought on this subject...
TIME OUT for right now...MACTRAXX