R10 (New York City Subway car)

R10 (New York City Subway car)
Manufacturer	American Car & Foundry
Constructed	1948–1949
Entered service	1948
Refurbishment	1984–1986
Scrapped	1983–1984, 1988–1995
Number built	400
Number preserved	2
Number scrapped	398
Fleet numbers	1948–1970: 1803–1852 and 3000–3349 1970–1989: 2950–2974, 3000–3049, 3100–3224(WH); 2975–2999, 3050–3099, 3225–3349(GE).
Capacity	56 (seated)
Operator	NYC Board of Transportation New York City Transit Authority
Specifications
Car body construction	LAHT Carbon steel
Car length	60.3 ft (18.4 m)
Width	10 ft (3.0 m)
Height	12.2 ft (3.7 m)
Platform height	3.76 ft (1.1 m)
Doors	8
Maximum speed	55 mph (89 km/h)
Weight	81,200 lb (36,832 kg)
Acceleration	2.5mph/s
Traction system	General Electric cars: GE PCM type 17KG116A switch group, with 17KC76A1 master controller, using GE 1240-A3 motors (100 hp (75 kW) each). All 4 axles motorized. Westinghouse cars: WH ABS type UP-631-A switch group, with XM-179 master controller, using Westinghouse 1447-A motors (100 hp (75 kW) each). All 4 axles motorized.
Power output	(100 hp (75 kW) per traction motor
Auxiliaries	Edison B4H (32 Volt) battery with 24 cells.
Electric system(s)	Top running third rail (600 Volts DC)
Current collection method	Contact Shoe
Braking system(s)	WABCO SMEE Braking System
Coupling system	WABCO H2C
Gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)

The R10 is a New York City Subway car class built by the American Car and Foundry Company in 1948–1949. The cars were nicknamed Thunderbirds.

Service History

• First Date of Revenue Service: November 20, 1948, on the A route.

The R10 cars were numbered 1803–1852 (later renumbered 2950–2999 in 1970) and 3000–3349. They were initially assigned to the Eighth Avenue A train, where they remained for 29 years and became synonymous with that route. Thirty cars were transferred to the BMT Eastern Division in late 1954 to familiarize crews with SMEE equipment in anticipation of the arrival of the R16 units.

• Last Regularly Scheduled Service: September 8, 1989, on the C route. The R10s were replaced by the R68 and R68A car classes.

While they may have been considered the worst operating revenue service car during the 1980s based on MDBF (Mean Distance Between Failures), many R10s outlasted the newer R16s as well as a number of R27s and R30s. There was a light overhaul program between December 1984 and February 1986 which was an interim measure to get the entire fleet in a non-graffiti state. The rehabilitation of the 110 R10s was done in-house at a budgeted cost of $65,000 per car. The last run of the GE R10s and the non overhauled WH R10s was November 10, 1988 just ten days shy of the 40th anniversary of their debut. The rebuilt R10s would start being withdrawn by March 1989.

The bulk of the scrapping of the remaining R10s ended in June 1990. The last R10 car to be removed from MTA New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) property was 3081, which was the only surviving GE-equipped unit in existence. It was scrapped sometime in 1993.

• Final Farewell Excursion Run: October 29, 1989, with cars 3018-3203-3182-2974-3143-3045-3145-3216 on various IND-BMT Division routes, including the new IND 63rd Street Line.

• Paint Schemes: The R10's various paint schemes were as follows: two-tone grey/orange (1948-circa 1967); tartar red (1962-circa 1966 on the following cars: 1822 (ren. 2969), 1850 (ren. 2997), 3099, 3101, 3137 and 3342); aqua blue/white with and without blue stripe (1965-circa 1970), silver/blue (circa 1970–1988) and dark green with silver roof and black front hood (1985–1989) on the GOH Westinghouse units only).

• Car 3189 had an experimental 3-passenger transverse fiberglass interior seating installed in 1969. The car was retired from revenue service in 1984, but was later repainted solid blue and used as a Road Car Inspector (R.C.I.) School Training Car at MTA NYC Transit Authority's (NYCTA) Pitkin Yard in Brooklyn. This car was on display at the New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn, in place temporarily from July 19, 2007 for a one month period. It was preserved by the Transit Museum and will later be restored.

• Car 3192 had a new R42 type front installed on that car in early 1975 to be the prototype car for an overhaul complete rebuilding of the fleet to be done with modern interiors and air-conditioning. The unit was scrapped in 1980 inside Coney Island Yard and the rebuilding never took place.

Description

The R10 introduced many innovations, including "SMEE" schedule braking, which introduced dynamic braking. Dynamic braking reduced wear and tear on brake shoes, reducing maintenance costs. Improved propulsion, in the form of four 100 horsepower (75 kW) traction motors instead of the traditional two 190 hp (140 kW) motors (the setup used in the R1-R9 car contracts) improved acceleration from 1.75 mph per second to the current 2.5 mph/s. R10s were also the last NYC subway cars ordered with air-operated door engines. Although they could, and occasionally did, operate in mixed consists of later SMEE cars, the R10s for the most part ran in solid consists throughout their careers.

For the first time, the car body was of an all-welded low-alloy high tensile (LAHT) steel construction. This gave the body great strength, as the body and underframe were welded together to form a single, durable and rigid car body which had strong structural integrity.

Preservation

3184 has been preserved by Railway Preservation Corp. and displayed at the New York Transit Museum in years past. 3189 has been preserved by the Transit Museum.

These two cars are the only surviving R10s.

External links

• http://nycsubway.org/cars/r10.html
• http://www.nycsubway.org/articles/theymovedthemillions5.html

References

• 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 978-0963749284