R30 (New York City Subway car)

The R30 was a New York City Subway car built by St. Louis Car Company for the New York City Transit Authority in 1961 and 1962. It was a continuation of the R16 and R27 style. They were a "follow-up" or supplemental stock for the B Division's R27s and closely resemble them.

About

Build plate of the R30 car on display at the New York Transit Museum.

The cars were "Protestant" married pairs, which meant that they were coupled together as pairs.^[1] The R30s were primarily BMT Eastern Division cars, although they would appear in the northern and southern divisions from time to time. Cars 8352–8411 were equipped with GE SCM controllers (first New York City Subway cars to be equipped with this system) and labeled R30As whereas the rest of the fleet were equipped with the older GE MCM or Westinghouse XCA248 controllers.

162 GE equipped R30s and all R30As were overhauled in 1985, which include being repainted in the Redbird style of the IRT cars. The unrebuilt R30s, which were Westinghouse cars numbered 8412-8569, were also painted red in the mid-1980s, but retired in 1991, and replaced by the R68's and R68A's. The last of the rebuilt R30s were retired from passenger service on June 25, 1993 on the C train. The Electric Railroaders Association sponsored a Farewell to the R30 Fan Trip. The rebuilt R30As were scrapped as the Transit Authority deemed them too difficult to upgrade with air-conditioning, which would have been costly and added too much weight to the cars. All of the new parts used for the rebuilding of these cars were salvaged and transplanted into the GE R36 fleet to improve their reliability between 1992-1993, therefore these cars technically became parts donors for the GE R36 (9558-9769) fleet.

Like their R27 sister units, the R30s wore several paint schemes over the course of their career. Originally delivered in a dark olive green paint scheme, many were repainted bright red in the late 1960s before receiving the MTA platinum mist grey-and-blue scheme beginning in 1970. The rebuilt R30s were finished in a fox red color and were called the BMT Redbirds.

Retirements, scrapping and preservation

After retirement, some R30 cars were saved for various purposes though out the New York City Subway system, including:

• 8429 and 8558 - converted as Rail Adhesion Cars, based at Coney Island Yard and Pitkin Yard, respectively.
• 8506 - preserved at the New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn, New York in the R30's original dark olive paint scheme.
• 8481 and 8522 - used as the New York Transit Museum's "supply" cars in the 207th Street Yard in Manhattan. Both cars are in the Redbird paint scheme.
• Half of a car numbered 8394 was placed in an Asics store in Times Square in late October 2014. The car was previously used for filming scenes in the Mohave Desert.^[2]

Other R30s that had been preserved before November 2013 included:

• 8265 and 8336 - used as school cars in Concourse Yard until 2009, when they were reefed and replaced by R40 cars #4442-4443.
• 8289-8290 - used as police training cars in Coney Island Yard until January 2008, when they were reefed.
• 8337 - used as a training car at the Transit Tech High School until 2009, when it was reefed and replaced by R42 cars #4736-4737.
• 8392 and 8401 - used as fire training cars in Coney Island Yard until July 2004. They were reefed in July 2007 and replaced by R110B cars #3004 and #3006.
• 8424-8425 - used as school cars in Coney Island Yard until October 21, 2013, when they were trucked to New Jersey to be scrapped.
• 8463 - used as a school car in Pitkin Yard until October 22, 2013, when it was also trucked to New Jersey to be scrapped along with the last remaining R27 car #8145.

In Popular Culture

• A train of R30s was featured in the film Ghost running as a J train.

• In the 1993 film Carlito's Way with Al Pacino, R30s were used during the chase scene near the end of the film. Cars 8275, 8277, 8330, 8332, 8335, 8340, and 8351 were seen among others. These trains displayed the 1 Broadway Local rollsigns.

• For the 1995 film Money Train, two 3-car sets of GE R30s were retrofitted with extra bright lights in the bottom of the car. They were 8294, 8298, 8394-8395, 8397, and 8408. Also, a single four-car set appeared in the movie. This four-car set included cars 8463, 8510, 8558, and 8569, which were filmed running on New York City Transit property. ^{[3] [4]}

• In the 1995 film Die Hard with a Vengeance, a set of GE R30s was used for the scene when the rear car of a Brooklyn-bound 3 train is derailed at Wall Street station, demolishing many of the station's support columns.

• In the movie Godzilla (1998 film), a partially destroyed R30 car, 8410, was used for an underground scene.

• All five movie appearances mentioned above depict the R30 cars in the Redbird paint scheme.

• A simulated version of the R30 interior was featured in the opening credits of Season 2 of the television show Everybody Hates Chris.

• Various R30s were shown in the 1982 made-for-TV film "Dreams Don't Die", depicting the R30s in the MTA Silver/Blue livery and the beige and orange interiors.

• A scene in the movie Saturday Night Fever shows a train of R30As running on the R train.

See also

• R27 (New York City Subway car) - a very similar model also built by the St. Louis Car Company.

References

Notes

Further reading

• Sansone, Gene. Evolution of New York City subways: An illustrated history of New York City's transit cars, 1867-1997. New York Transit Museum Press, New York, 1997 ISBN 978-0-9637492-8-4

External links

• nycsubway.org - NYC Subway Cars: R30
• http://nycsubway.org/articles/theymovedthemillions7.html

New York City Subway revenue rolling stock Current B Division / SIR: R32 R42 R44 R46 R68 R68A R143 R160 A Division: R62 R62A R142 R142A R188 Future B Division / SIR: R179 R211 Retired (R-type) IND / BMT (B Division): Arnines R1 R4 R6 R7 R7A R8A R9 R10 R11/R34 R16 Redbirds R27 R30/A R38 R40 R40A R110B IRT (A Division): R12 R14 R15 R17 R21 R22 Redbirds R26 R28 R29 R33 R33 WF R36 R36 WF R110A Train of Many Colors Retired (private operators) BMT / SIR Elevated: BU cars C-type Q-type Queens car Subway: AB Standard Bluebird Compartment Car D-type Triplex MS Multi-section car SIRT ME-1 IRT Composite Gibbs Hi-V Deck Roof Hi-V Hedley Hi-V Steinway Lo-V "Flivver" Lo-V Standard Lo-V World's Fair Lo-V Work trains R8A R65 R127/R134 R156 Never built R39 R55 R83 See also: R-type contracts