R42 (New York City Subway car)

R42 (New York City Subway car)

An R42 NYCS Z train at Broadway Junction.

Interior of an R42 car.
In service 1969-present
Manufacturer St. Louis Car Company
Built at St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Replaced All remaining BMT Standards, and many R1-R9s
Constructed 1969–1970
Refurbishment 1988–1989
Scrapped 2008-
Number built 400 (many retired)
Number in service 50 (40 in revenue service during rush hours)
Number preserved 5
Number scrapped 345
Formation Married Pairs
Fleet numbers 4550–4949
Capacity 44 (seated)
Operator New York City Subway
Depot(s) East New York Yard[1]
Service(s) assigned NYCS J NYCS Z
Specifications
Car body construction Stainless Steel with Carbon Steel chassis, roof and underbody, Fiberglass A-end bonnet and B-end top bonnet
Train length 2 car train: 120.4 feet (36.7 m)
4 car train: 240.8 feet (73.4 m)
6 car train: 361.2 feet (110.1 m)
8 car train: 481.6 feet (146.8 m)
10 car train: 602 feet (183 m)
Car length 60 ft (18.29 m)
Width 10 ft (3,048 mm)
Height 12.08 ft (3,682 mm)
Platform height 3.76 ft (1.15 m)
Doors 8
Maximum speed 55 mph (89 km/h)
Weight 74,388.5 lb (33,742 kg)
Traction system General Electric (GE) SCM propulsion system using Westinghouse 1447J motors
115 hp (85.8 kW) on all axles
Electric system(s) 600 V DC Third rail
Current collection method Contact shoe
Braking system(s) CI Rebuilds: New York Air Brake SMEE/ Newtran (dynamic and friction), A.S.F. simplex unit cylinder clasp (tread) brake
MK Rebuilds: WABCO "SMEE" Braking System, A.S.F. simplex unit cylinder clasp (tread) brake
Coupling system Westinghouse H2C
Headlight type halogen light bulbs
Track gauge 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)

The R42 is a New York City Subway car model built between 1969 and 1970 by the St. Louis Car Company in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the B Division (IND/BMT). This fleet was the first to be fully equipped with Stone Safety 10 ton air conditioning systems/units similarly found on the last ten (10) R38 and R40A cars. The R42 fleet is numbered 4550-4949. It was the last 60-foot (18.29 m) B Division car built for the New York City Subway until the R143 in 2001, and the last car model class to be built in married pairs.

Background

On May 9, 1969, cars 4554-4555 entered service on the N service as part of a mixed consist with R40Ms. Although, there were some slight cosmetic differences, the R40Ms and R42s were for all practical purposes the same car type. As of January 5, 1970, all cars from 4550 to 4949 were in service.[2]

The R42s were the first cars to use solid state converters in place of the motor-generators as standard equipment.

Maintenance and Accidents

In 1977, pantograph gates, salvaged from retired R1s - R9s, were modified and then installed on these cars, and also on the R40Ms as a safety measure.

Between 1988 and 1989, R42s underwent overhaul as a result of deferred maintenance in the New York City Subway during the 1970s and the 1980s. 282 cars (4550–4839) were overhauled by Morrisen-Knudsen while the last 110 cars (4840–4949) were rebuilt in-house by the Coney Island Overhaul Shop in Brooklyn. The one minor difference in appearance between the two overhauls was that many cars of the Coney Island version featured the original blue door indicator lights at the ends of the cars, whereas these lights were removed from the Morrison-Knudsen rebuilds. Also, all cars became General Electric (GE) cars after rebuilding.

Cars 4680-4681, 4714-4715, and 4766-4767 were scrapped in 1988 due to various accidents. On June 6, 1995, cars 4664-4665 were involved in a collision on the Williamsburg Bridge. Car 4664 was scrapped in 2000 (with cars 4685 and 4726, which were not involved in the accident), while 4665 was mated with straight-ended R40A car #4460, which lost its mate in the same accident. On November 6, 2007, an M train of R42s was involved in an accident when the motorman attempted to relay it south of the Chambers Street station. As the R42 fleet was being retired at the time, the entire consist[3] was hauled to 207th Street Yard for reefing instead of being repaired even though only the first two cars suffered major damage.[4][5]

Retirements and Preservation

The R160s replaced many of the R42s in the late 2000s. They were intended to replace the entire fleet, but this has been halted due to structural issues found on the R44s. 50 cars (#4788-4817 and #4820-4839) still remain in service and are assigned to East New York Yard, operating on the J and Z trains. After retirement, most cars were stripped and sunk as artificial reefs along the Atlantic coast.

Cars 4572-4573 have been preserved, repainted, and set aside for the New York Transit Museum. This set was used in the famous chase scene in the film The French Connection.

Car 4665 and its R40A mate 4460 have been preserved by the Railway Preservation Corp and are stored at Coney Island Yard.

Cars 4736-4737 were donated to East New York's Transit Tech High School[6] on April 14, 2009, replacing R30 car 8337, which was reefed a few months later.[7]

The remaining 50 R42s are expected to be replaced by the R179 order starting in 2016.[8][9]

References

  1. ↑ New York Subway Barn Assignments. December 2014
  2. ↑ ERA New York Division Bulletin, August 2005 "January 5, 1970 Car Assigment", Page 9.
  3. ↑ Cars 4730, 4731, 4624,4625, 4818,4819, 4786, and 4787
  4. ↑ "MTA - Press Release - NYC Transit - M Train Incident at Chambers Street". mta.info.
  5. ↑ "www.nycsubway.org". www.nycsubway.org.
  6. ↑ Mooney, Jake (May 3, 2009), "Very Closely Watched Trains", The New York Times (New York, NY): CY1
  7. ↑ "www.nycsubway.org". www.nycsubway.org.
  8. ↑ "Governor Cuomo Announces $600 Million MTA Investment in Upstate Manufacturing". Governor Andrew M. Cuomo.
  9. ↑ http://mta.info/mta/news/books/docs/r_179_staff_summary_March_2012.pdf

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to R42 (New York City Subway car).