R22 (New York City Subway car)

R22 (New York City Subway car)
Heavily vandalized R22 car
Manufacturer	St. Louis Car Company
Built at	St. Louis, Missouri
Replaced	1987
Constructed	1957-1958
Number built	450
Number in service	(16 in work service)
Number preserved	2 (1 in storage)
Number scrapped	431
Fleet numbers	7300-7749
Capacity	44 (seated)
Operator(s)	New York City Transit Authority
Specifications
Car body construction	LAHT Carbon steel
Car length	51 ft 0.5 in (15.56 m)
Width	8 ft 9 in (2,667 mm)
Height	11 ft 10 in (3,607 mm)
Doors	6
Maximum speed	55 mph (89 km/h)
Weight	General Electric cars: 77,607 lb (35,202 kg) Westinghouse cars: 78,604 lb (35,654 kg)
Traction system	Westinghouse 1447C or General Electric 1240A4
Power output	100 hp (75 kW) per traction motor
Electric system(s)	600 V DC Third rail
Current collection method	Top running Contact shoe
Braking system(s)	WABCO ME42A
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)

The R22 was a New York City Subway car built in 1957–1958 by the St. Louis Car Company for the IRT division. Each car cost approximately $106,699.

The 450 R22s were a "follow-up" or supplemental stock for the "A" Division's R21 car order and look exactly the same, and were the last single cars built prior to the R33 World's Fair cars in 1963-1964. The fleet had two-paned storm door windows that could be opened by dropping down the upper window except for cars 7515-24, which had single drop sash windows instead. Those cars also had Plextone-painted interiors and pink-molded fiberglass seats. The R22s were the first cars to have sealed beam headlights.

History

The R22s first entered service on April 13, 1957, starting to replace most of the IRT "high voltage" type cars. The R22s ran is service for most of their service lives on the IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line painted in green livery.

Cars 7513, 7509, 7516, 7654, 7675 (which was the location of Bernhard Goetz's vigilante action), and 7686, were used as an automatic test train which ran revenue service on the 42nd Street Shuttle starting in January 1962. The experiment ended on April 21, 1964, when a fire partially destroyed the Grand Central Shuttle platform as well as car 7740. Cars 7509, 7513, and 7516 were not damaged in the fire, but never returned to revenue service. In 1973, car 7509 was converted to the 64-foot (19.51 m) test car XC375, which operated on various IRT lines until April 1982. This car was scrapped on July 12, 1996.

Retirement

7486 (renumbered to G7486) at the 207th St Yard, pending scrapping

Though a very dependable fleet, the R22s, being single units, were not rebuilt, but replaced in the mid-1980s by the R62/R62As. The last train made its final trip on December 30, 1987, on the 5 service with a solid consist of R21s.

Several R22 cars are either preserved, in work service, or in storage:

• 7340, 7446, 7505, 7657, 7659, and 7691 were converted to R123 Continuous Welded Rail Cars.

• 7346, 7376, 7413, 7432, 7571 and 7629 are restored as contract R71 and they are used as reach cars.

• 7371 is at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine, where it bears number boards from other retired R22 subway cars (7370, 7373, 7435, and 7460).

• 7397, 7441, 7608, and 7633 were converted to R71 De-Icer Cars.

• 7422 is now R95 Revenue Collection Car 1R714 and preserved at the New York Transit Museum. This car is coupled to R21 7194 (renumbered 0R714).

• 7486 is at the 207th Street Yard in storage. This car has been stripped and is currently awaiting scrap.

16 R22s were converted into R71 rider cars after retirement, but were replaced with R161s (R33s converted into rider cars) in the mid-2000s.

In popular culture

A train of R22s were featured in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, a 1974 film about the hijacking of a subway car, seen in the film as number 7339, on a downtown 6 train.

See also

• R21 (New York City Subway car) - a very similar model also built by the St. Louis Car Company.

References

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons