R36 (New York City Subway car)

R36 (New York City Subway car)
An R36 ML train covered in graffiti on the service at 125th Street in September 1973
Cars 9333 (R33 World's Fair) and 9533 (R36) are visible on the platform at Hunts Point Avenue in 2002, shortly before their retirement
Manufacturer	St. Louis Car Company
Built at	St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Constructed	1964
Entered service	1964
Refurbishment	1985
Scrapped	2001-2003
Number built	34
Number preserved	2
Number scrapped	32
Formation	Married Pairs
Fleet numbers	9524-9557
Capacity	44 (seated)
Operator(s)	New York City Subway
Specifications
Car body construction	LAHT (Low Alloy High Tensile) steel
Car length	51.04 feet (15.56 m)
Width	8.75 feet (2,667 mm)
Height	11.86 feet (3,615 mm)
Doors	6
Weight	69,400 lb (31,500 kg) (pre-rebuild)
Traction system	Westinghouse XCA248 with Westinghouse 1447C motors (4/car, 100 hp or 75 kW)
Acceleration	~1.5mph/s
Auxiliaries	Converter
Electric system(s)	600 V DC Third rail
Current collection method	Contact shoe
Braking system(s)	WABCO, "SMEE" (electrodynamic)
Safety system(s)	emergency brakes
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge

The R36 (or R36 ML) was a class of New York City Subway cars built in 1964 by the St. Louis Car Company, St. Louis, Missouri for the IRT division (also known as the A Division). These cars are referred as R36 ML (or Main Line) or formerly known as the Red R36's to distinguish them from the blue R36 World's Fair cars which were built for service on the IRT Flushing Line (7 <7> trains).

The first set of R36s was placed in service on the 4 train on July 24, 1964.

The R36 ML was a 34-car follow-up order to the 500-car R33 model. Both R33 ML and R36 ML were similar with drop-sash side windows differentiating them from the large picture windows of the World's Fair cars. These cars ran for many years on the IRT main lines (Broadway – Seventh Avenue and Lexington Avenue). Prior to overhaul in 1984/5, they mainly ran on the 1 and 3 trains. Upon returning from overhaul the R36s ran on the 7 from 1984 to 1988, and transferred to the 6 from 1988 to 2001, and again retransferred back to the 7 when they began to be replaced by the R142A cars. Some also provided occasional service on the 4 route which sometimes uses equipment borrowed from the 6.

By 1982, all cars in this series have received air conditioning as part of a retrofitting program.

Retirements, Scrapping and Preservation

In 1998, the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) announced that it would begin phasing out the Redbird cars — R26 / 28 / 29 / 33 / 36 with the R142 and R142A cars. From 2001 to 2003, Redbird cars were reefed, scrapped, sold, put into work service, or stored out of service.

All but one pair of R36 MLs were reefed. With the arrival of the R142As on the 6, the R36 MLs were transferred over to the 7. The last pair, numbers 9542-9543, ran on the 7 until August 2003. They went to the New York Transit Museum in 2004. The current state of these cars is unknown, as they have not been seen since.

See also

• R29 (New York City Subway car) & R33 (New York City Subway car) - very similar earlier models also built by St. Louis Car Company.

References

• Media related to at Wikimedia Commons
• Media related to at Wikimedia Commons