With their stainless steel exteriors
that resemble the side of a soup can and an overall old-timey vibe to them, the R-32 subway cars began their last rides this month. They are some of the oldest subway cars still running, not just in New York City but in the world. Rail fans came out in full force to say their goodbyes, many of them calling them the most reliable train cars the subway system had ever seen.
Some people think they should just stay forever as they are better built than what's out there today. They are almost 60 years old and still in good shape. They are icons of the city.
“FUN FACT
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The R32s were dubbed “Brightliners” when they first appeared for two reasons: They started running on the Brighton Line on the BMT between 57th Street in Manhattan and Coney Island (along with the Sea Beach Line; the N train, also to Coney Island on a different route in Brooklyn), and because they were the first mass-produced trains on the system clad in stainless steel. They were built by the Budd Company, which was already famous for its dome cars and other luxurious equipment for long-distance trains, and for its self-contained Rail Diesel Cars (RDCs), which became known colloquially in railroad circles as “Budd Cars.” The R32s were the only large order that the company ever made for the New York system,* and they were built for the New York City Transit Authority before it was folded into the state-controlled Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which was established later in the decade.
Source Railway Age
The subway cars earned their nickname as they have "washboard-like ridges on the exteriors of the cars." The last run of the cars has been a long time coming, as their original retirement announcement was actually a decade ago.
“As we continue the work to modernize the transit system and improve the customer experience, it is truly bittersweet to say farewell to the fleet of historic R-32 trains that have served new Yorkers for nearly six decades. A significant amount of history goes along with these trains”
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Speaking of the throwback of it all, Regina Asborno, the deputy director of the New York Transit Museum said that the museum is adding some special touches to the train cars for the final rides. There will be retirement branding, new nostalgic touches that will be added to the train each week leading up to the final run on January 9th.
That final run will include a map, which is a 1964 World's Fair Map and Station Guide, a variant of the map that would have been found in the R-32s when they went into revenue service.
An R-32 train on the Williamsburg bridge, in temporary service as a Z in 2020. | MARC A. HERMANN / MTA
A Retired MTA worker took a final ride on one of these trains and had said "I wish the entire fleet was still in regular service, that's my opinion. I'm going to miss these cars... to me, this is a piece of history."
There will be three more days of final runs, on Sunday, December 26th, January 2nd, and January 9th. You can find more information on those runs here.
