To some, transit is something to be celebrated and enjoyed in the city, while others simply tolerate it. Regardless, some of the city’s subway cars have been transporting thousands of passengers a day for decades, and breaking down and causing delays plenty of times along the way too.
As the city updates its rolling stock with new cars that are outfitted with new technology, the older cars of yesteryear are finally entering retirement, like the R-42 cars that went on their final run on Wednesday morning and afternoon.
Despite the love-hate relationship that many city dwellers have with the transit system, there was big turnout and buzz in the air at the Euclid Avenue station in East New York a little before the trainset of R-42s arrived for its 10:30 a.m. departure to Far Rockaway-Mott Avenue along the A-line.
The final run would eventually continue back towards Euclid Avenue and all the way to the northern terminus in Manhattan’s Inwood at 207th Street station before turning back to go to Euclid Avenue where it would go out of service. Anyone who paid a subway fare was able to ride the train, which left plenty of casual commuters stunned when they saw the commotion going on in this train. Some people did not even notice they were experiencing history.
A stroke of luck on the trip down to Euclid Avenue revealed that the train was leaving from one of the abandoned tracks at Hoyt-Schermerhorn station in downtown Brooklyn, which have been used in some film shoots like the Michael Jackson music video “Bad.” The R-42s are used to the spotlight because some cars were used in the movie “The French Connection” as well.
The New York Transit Museum operated the train, which may have come from the transit museum, which is in a decommissioned but still active subway station called Court Street and can only be accessed from the abandoned outermost tracks at Hoyt-Schermerhorn.
Crew and other special personnel could be spotted walking along the dark, nondescript platform that is usually off-limits, and some were sitting inside the train. The sighting should have alerted any sharp-eyed passengers that something special was about to happen. Whether they knew it or not, those next few hours would be their final chances to ride and see these train cars that were made in 1969 by the American-based St. Louis Car Company.
Eager railfans crowded the front of the first car, leading to the operator making jokes about how he needs to get through.
People of all kinds showed up for the occasion, like former and current employees, people who are in different railroad fan clubs, at least one student with green hair who said he was excused from school for the historic occasion, and departing transit chief Andy Byford himself.
One person with contacts in the MTA even started chatting with a teenager and passed along the teenager’s suggestions to a source of his. At each station and at any other nearby vantage point, more railfans could be spotted shooting video and taking photos of the train. Some people even scrambled out of the train at every station to get photos and move into the next car.
One rider remembers when these cars ran on the L and M lines, and he even brought along a Lego model of an R-33 Redbird train car that he built from scratch. Arqiel Roldan is 22 years old and has a YouTube channel where he features his custom-built vintage New York subway Lego cars. It took him over an hour and a half to build the Redbird car and much longer to find the pieces, especially the red ones.
Roldan particularly likes the roll signs, design of the train like the fence gates, and the way the R-42 train runs, saying it’s “one of those everyday trains that I take, and it’s one of my favorites.”
Even though he will miss the trains and is upset about Byford leaving his post, Roldan is generally happy about the new cars the subway system is getting and thinks “it’s time to move on ” from the past. Roldan had a parting message for the R-42s. “Thanks for making my childhood and the MTA great.”
The train stopped in Far Rockaway for about 20 minutes and gave people the opportunity to photograph and explore the train while it was idle. A large crowd of people on the platform surrounded Byford, who was signing every autograph, talking to every person, and taking pictures with everyone.
The large turnout and enthusiasm did not surprise Byford, who said the turnout was amazing “but it’s just incredible, and rightly so because these are legendary trains that served new york really well for 50 years. It’s only right that we should cherish our heritage.” He echoed those sentiments on the trip up to Manhattan when he made an announcement over the PA system about the legendary status of the trains and the significance of this final ride.
Byford also called himself “Train Daddy” at the start of the announcements, referencing a viral bumper sticker with Byford’s face on the front of a train with him labeled as the “Train Daddy.” Byford had only kind words to say about the staff he worked with, leading to applause from the passengers and an additional announcement from crew to thank him.
“I’ll miss the people,” he said about his staff when he was on the Far Rockaway platform. “The transit staff absolutely rock,” adding that they kept an old system moving against the odds while dealing with harsh criticism.
Byford’s time as the head of the New York City Transit Authority was difficult as he handled problems like the failures of the subways in the summer of 2017 that were bad enough to warrant a state of emergency. Even though transportation experts and enthusiasts alike generally agree that Byford is the right man for the job, dealing with the obstacles and disagreements with people like the governor proved too much.
Ultimately, he believes things are headed in the right direction and that most people in this city appreciate the transit system. “They know that transit is the lifeblood of the city,” Byford said. “Without transit, the city would come to gridlock, so you’ve gotta have working transit.”
Even though Byford is on his way out, he focused on the positives and showed how much he cares about the system. “Today is all about this beautiful thing behind me, an R-42,” he said while standing on the Far Rockaway island platform with the historic train right behind him. “There is no way I was missing being on this train today. Job number one.”
The train departed Far Rockaway a few minutes late and then got stuck at Beach 44-Frank Avenue station while awaiting the South Channel bridge to allow maritime traffic to pass. The delay gave the cars a few more moments of time out at the Rockaways that they helped serve for so many years.
Once the train got moving again, a man named Torin Reid shared his appreciation for Byford and the R-42s, and that’s partially because he operated these cars. He is a former train operator who retired in 2016 after a 28-year career and wrote a book called “The New York Subway Motorman’s Rant.”
He thinks the cars could have lasted longer and laments that newer cars are either not made in America or that the profits ultimately wind up leaving the country. Reid, speaking above the noise of the phenomenal announcements and museum advertisements being done by the transit museum crew, said that he was thrilled to see the level of enthusiasm people showed for this train and explained why he is glad to be a rail buff.
“Most of the sports teams suck, the political atmosphere stinks, there’s not a lot to be happy about,” Reid said. “To be enthusiastic over these R-42s even for a day, it’s a good thing.” His only real criticism of the cars was that they jerked too much when accelerating from a stopped position.
Even though the majority of the R-42s will not be saved, Reid assured that “old subway cars never really die.”
There will always be memories, but Reid also meant that some trains will be saved for posterity and maybe one day put into service on special excursion trains run by the transit museum. Byford confirmed that some cars would be saved.
Time will tell if the new cars perform as well or better as these older ones that are from the Nixon administration. Reid said that he liked how he had space for personal belongings under the seat or behind it in the old R-42s.
There have been complaints from crew about the new R-179 cars being uncomfortable. All of those cars were also temporarily taken out of service a few weeks ago because of door problems. The order from Bombardier is already behind schedule. They replaced the R-42s and are scheduled to replace the similar and even older R-32s over the next few years.
