ERA BULLETIN — AUGUST, 2020 The Bulletin Electric Railroaders’ Association, Incorporated Vol. 63, No. 8 August, 2020 The Bulletin NEW YORK CITY SUBWAY CAR UPDATE: Published by the Electric Railroaders’ R-32s RETURN TO SERVICE! Association, Inc. (Photographs by Ron Yee) P. O. Box 3323 Grand Central Station New York, NY 10163 For general inquiries, or Bulletin submissions, contact us at bulletin@erausa. org or on our website at erausa. org/contact Editorial Staff: Jeff Erlitz Editor-in-Chief Ron Yee Tri-State News and Commuter Rail Editor Alexander Ivanoff North American and World News Editor David Ross Production Manager Copyright © 2020 ERA This Month’s Cover Photo: SNCF Z 8800 set 42B with Z 8884 driving motor in the lead, at Javel Station and soon to depart as an RER Line C service to Versailles on the occasion of a week- A train of R-32s, led by 3436-3437, is seen entering the Hewes Street station on July 9. end service change. The 8800 class are dual Several trains of the Phase I R-32s that from the East New York facility, a fleet which voltage 1.5 kV DC / 25 kV were recently resurrected were placed back was expanded to the following 90 as of July AC 50 Hz. Built by a con- sortium of Alstom-ANF- in revenue service on the J/Z starting on 12: 3360-3361, 3376-3377, 3380-3381, CIMT-TCO, they were deliv- the morning of July 1, with the start of anoth- 3388-3389, 3394-3397, 3400-3401, 3414- ered between 1986-1988. Photo taken July 21, 2018 er new supplement that restored the com- 3415, 3419/3740, 3432-3433, 3436-3437, by Subutay Musluoglu plete weekday schedule on the L. This de- 3444/3777, 3454-3455, 3460-3461, 3488- nied the use of what had otherwise been 3489, 3500-3501, 3512-3515, 3520/3891, In This Issue: “surplus” R-143 and R-160A-1 equipment 3548/3593, 3574-3575, 3590-3591, 3614- …Page 2 from the L on the J/Z and M. This left no 3615, 3646-3647, 3670-3671, 3706-3707, alternative than to resume the use of reborn 3714-3717, 3772-3775, 3778-3779, 3780- Phase I R-32s in lieu of the missing R-179s. 3781, 3792-3793, 3798-3799, 3804-3805, At that time there were 82 R-32s available (Continued on page 2) 1 NEW YORKERA DIVISION BULLETIN BULLETIN — AUGUST, OCTOBER, 2020 2000 New York City Subway Car Update are restored to service later in 2020. The following additional 190 Jamaica-assigned R- 3810-3811, 3834-3835, 3840-3841, 3886-3889, 3894- 160s have operated on the A from June 15 through 3897, 3912-3913, 3928-3929, 3932-3933, and 3938- July 12: Alstom R-160A-2s 8663-8667, 8673-8677, 3939. 8682-8687, 8698-8702; Alstom R-160Bs 8738-8742, As of July 3, the two erstwhile East New York 8818-8822; Siemens R-160Bs 8848-8852, 8858-8862, (Canarsie) R-160A-1 trains that were borrowed by 8888-8892, 8908-8912, 8958-8962, 8968-8972; Alstom 207th Street for the C (8329-8332, 8341-8344, 8357- R-160Bs 9193-9197, 9203-9212; Alstom R-160A-2s 8360 and 8369-8372) had been returned home, which 9248-9252, 9258-9262, 9278-9282, 9418-9422, 9458- concurrently began the complete (100%) use of full- 9462, 9478-9482, 9488-9492, 9523-9527, 9538-9547, length R-46 equipment on the C. This may prove tem- 9563-9572, 9608-9617, 9643-9647, 9658-9667, 9788- porarily to be the last eight-car rolling stock to be as- 9792; Kawasaki R-160Bs 9803-9807, 9823-9827, 9833- signed to the C until such time as the four-car R-179s 9837, 9878-9882, and 9918-9922. R-32 3500 leads a southbound J at Marcy Avenue, July 9. R-32s north of Chauncey Street station, relaying into East New York Yard, July 9. PRE-UNIFICATION SUBWAY CAR ROSTERS - PART II by Jeff Erlitz In the July issue of The Bulletin (page 20), we printed peared and included all cars ordered by the IRT, from its a roster of Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) subway inception in 1904 to the final order of Low-Voltage cars but did not have any space available for an intro- World’s Fair Steinway motor cars in 1938. That roster duction. Herewith is that introduction, as well as part was undated but was probably produced in the mid- to two of this short series. late 1960s. The New York City Transit Authority used to have all This month, we continue with a roster of the subway kinds of information sheets available to the public that cars of the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation were created by the Department of Public Information from its inception (actually in Brooklyn Rapid Transit and Community Relations (at least as it was known in (BRT) days) to just before unification in June, 1940. the 1960s). One of those single-page handouts was the This roster shows the fleet “as delivered.” The original IRT roster we presented to you last month. That roster copy of this roster was dated August, 1968 but has was reproduced almost exactly as the original had ap- been reformatted to save space. (Continued on page 3) 2 ERA BULLETIN — AUGUST, 2020 Pre-Unification Subway Car Rosters — Part II (Continued from page 2) NUMBERS TYPE BUILDER DATE NOTE 1 2000-2099 A American Car and Foundry 1914 67’ Standard Motor 1 2100-2199 A American Car and Foundry 1915 67’ Standard Motor 1 2200-2299 A American Car and Foundry 1916 67’ Standard Motor 1 2300-2399 A American Car and Foundry 1917 67’ Standard Motor 1 2400-2499 A American Car and Foundry 1918 67’ Standard Motor 1 2500-2599 A American Car and Foundry 1919 67’ Standard Motor 1 2600-2699 A Pressed Steel Car 1920 67’ Standard Motor 1 2700-2799 A Pressed Steel Car 1921 67’ Standard Motor 1 2800-2899 A Pressed Steel Car 1922 67’ Standard Motor 1 4000-4044 A Pressed Steel Car 1924 67’ Standard Trailer 2 4045-4049 AX Pressed Steel Car 1924 67’ Standard Trailer 3 6000-6003 D Pressed Steel Car 1925 Triplex 3 6004-6070 D Pressed Steel Car 1927 Triplex 3 6071-6121 D Pressed Steel Car 1928 Triplex 4 5 7003 Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing 1934 Multi-Section 4 7004-7013 St. Louis Car 1936 Multi-Section 4 7014-7028 Pullman-Standard Car Manufacturing 1936 Multi-Section 4 6 7029 Edward G Budd Manufacturing 6/1934 Multi-Section 7 8 8000 Clark Equipment 1938 Compartment 7 8 8001-8005 Clark Equipment 1940 Compartment Notes: 1. As built, all A-Type cars, both motors and trailers, were single units with cabs at each end and conductor controls at the center door. 2. Though trailers, these cars also had controls at one end. 3. Each section of the Triplex cars was sub-lettered A, B and C. 4. Each section of the Multi-Section cars was sub-lettered Sec. A, Sec. B, Sec. C, Sec. B1 and Sec. A1. 5. Painted Pullman green, this unit was nicknamed the Green Hornet. 6. Built of stainless steel, this unit was nicknamed the Zephyr. 7. Each section of the Compartment cars was sub-lettered A, B and A-1. 8. Painted two-tone blue, the Compartment cars were nicknamed Bluebirds. 3 NEW YORKERA DIVISION BULLETIN BULLETIN — AUGUST, OCTOBER, 2020 2000 Commuter and Transit News by Jeff Erlitz The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) an- nounced on June 30 that the agency is deploying a doz- en vending machines at ten subway stations allowing customers to buy Covid-19 personal protective equip- ment (PPE). The new machines, part of a pilot program, will offer reusable face masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, and sanitizing wipes. The pilot program consists of 12 machines at these 10 locations: ● 14 St-Union Square 456LNQRW ● 34 St-Herald Square (two machines) BDF MNQRW ● 34 St-Penn Station 123 ● 34 St-Penn Station ACE ● 42 St-Port Authority Bus Terminal ACE ● 42 St-Times Square (two machines) One of the Vengo vending machines. 1237 MTA photograph NQRSW ● 59 St-Columbus Circle 1ABCD ● 74 St-Roosevelt Av 7EFMR July 11 was the last day of staffed operation of Nassau ● Atlantic Av-Barclays Center 2345BDNQR Tower in Mineola. This tower is directly in the path of the new Main Line Third Track and needed to be moved out ● Lexington Av EM of the way. This interlocking, controlling the junction of The machines are of two types. Eight machines are the Main Line with the Oyster Bay Branch, is now con- being installed and stocked by Canteen, a division of trolled from Jamaica Central Control, which is in the the Compass Group, a food services company. These AirTrain building on the south side of the tracks in Ja- machines were built by Vengo, a manufacturer of retail maica. vending machines. Four machines are branded as Nassau Tower also controlled three remote interlock- “Simply” and are being installed and stocked by vending ings, Nassau 1 between the New Hyde Park and Meril- machine company Swyft. lon Avenue stations, Nassau 3 between the Mineola The MTA is also distributing hand sanitizer at every and Carle Place stations, and Nassau 4, south of the station as well as 2 million single-use surgical masks to East Williston station on the Oyster Bay Branch. The customers at station booths thanks to donations from junction in Mineola where the tower stands, had been the State of New York and City of New York. (MTA press redesignated Nassau 2 when all four them were placed release, June 30) in service in 1996.