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Lindsay-Era Subway Cars Are Retiring From NYC Subway System
By
Sydney Pereira
Published Feb 10, 2020
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By
Sydney Pereira
Published Feb 10, 2020
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Some 50-year-old train cars are retiring from the New York City subway system this week, long-anticipated by train enthusiasts tracking the historic train cars' final days. The R-42s, as they're known, will make a final run on the A line this Wednesday, according to the MTA.
The Nixon-era train cars were first added to the city's subway system in 1969, according to the MTA. They ran along the BMT Broadway Line, which is known as the N line today. About 400 of them were a part of the MTA's fleet at their peak.
"So long, and thanks for all the trips," the MTA said in the announcement. The approximate schedule for the final run is Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. on the A line. The train will leave about 10:30 a.m. from Euclid Avenue to head towards Far Rockaway. It will leave from Far Rockaway towards 207th Street at 11:30 a.m., and then leave 207th Street to return to Euclid Avenue about 1:30 p.m. It will make all A stops.
The train cars were known for their silver, stainless steel exterior and bench-seating on the inside. Built by the now-defunct St. Louis Car Company in 1969, they were among the subway system's oldest—not quite as old as R-32s but slightly older than the R-46s that feature the '70s color palette.
An R-42 was featured in the iconic car versus subway chase scene—filmed without permits in what one crew member described as "dangerous" and "life-threatening"—in the 1971 film The French Connection. The two train cars (#4572 and #4573) from that scene are in the New York Transit Museum.
About 50 of the cars have been running along the J and Z lines after the MTA retired most of them between 2006 and 2009. Some joined cars known as Redbirds and Brightliners at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to build artificial reefs. The MTA declined to comment on what will happen to the remaining R-42s when they go out of service this week.
R-179s train cars will replace the R-42s, and about $600 million worth of 300 R-179 cars have been purchased, according to the MTA. Last month, the newer train cars were removed from service following the discovery of an unspecified door problem on two trains, and the old-school R-32 and R-42 cars were put back into service. (Another 18 additional R-179s were provided at no cost following the incident, according to an MTA spokesperson.)
According recent MTA statistics, the R-42s had some of the highest rates of failures. In October, the R-42s had failures every 31,000 miles—about four times as often as the average distance between failures systemwide. But while the cars were considered by the MTA to be among the "poorest performing car classes," some train aficionados are already feeling nostalgic.
Many have posted photos of their recent rides on the outgoing trains. Transit enthusiast Andy Lin told Gothamist in December that rail fans knew "the retirement of the R-42s was kind of imminent," and took seriously getting final photos of the train car.
Subway YouTuber Dj Hammers posted nearly 14 minutes of R-42s pulling into the station if you want a closer look.
This article has been updated to clarify how many new train cars were purchased.
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Sydney Pereira
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