R40 (New York City Subway car)
Retired class of New York City Subway car / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The R40 was a New York City Subway car model built by the St. Louis Car Company from 1967 to 1969 for the IND/BMT B Division. There were 400 cars in the R40 fleet, arranged in married pairs. Two versions of the R40 were manufactured: the original 200-car R40 order built in 1967–1968, and the supplementary 200-car R40A order built in 1968–1969, with the last 100 cars of the supplementary order re-designed with straight ends. The 200 original R40s and the first 100 R40As were unique for their futuristic 10-degree slanted end (designed by the firm Raymond Loewy and Associates, and William Snaith Inc.) and were nicknamed the R40 Slants or simply Slants. Due to safety concerns, the final 100 cars of the R40A order were re-designed with traditional straight-ends by Sundberg-Ferar and became known unofficially as the "R40M" (M for modified).
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R40 | |
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In service | 1968–2009 |
Manufacturer | St. Louis Car Company |
Built at | St. Louis, Missouri, USA |
Replaced | Many remaining BMT Standards Some R1s[1] |
Constructed |
|
Entered service | March 23, 1968 |
Refurbished | 1987–1989 |
Scrapped | 2007–2010, 2013 |
Number built | 400
|
Number preserved | 6 (2 R40s, 4 R40As) |
Number scrapped | 394 |
Successor | R160 |
Fleet numbers |
|
Capacity | 44 (seated) |
Operators | New York City Subway |
Specifications | |
Car body construction | Stainless steel sides with carbon steel chassis and underframes, fiberglass A-end bonnet |
Car length | 60 ft 2.5 in (18.35 m) |
Width | 9 ft 9 in (2.97 m) |
Height | 12 ft 1.625 in (3.70 m) |
Platform height | 3 ft 9.125 in (1.15 m) |
Doors | 8 sets of 50 inch wide side doors per car |
Maximum speed | 55 mph (89 km/h) |
Weight | 77,695 lb (35,242 kg) (slant) 78,030 lb (35,394 kg) |
Traction system | General Electric SCM 17KG192AE2 propulsion system using GE 1257E1 motors (115 hp or 85.76 kW per axle) |
Acceleration | 2.5mph/s |
Deceleration | ~3mph |
Braking system(s) | Westinghouse Air Brake Company "SMEE" Braking System, A.S.F. simplex unit cylinder clasp (tread) brake |
Safety system(s) | emergency brakes |
Headlight type | halogen light bulbs |
Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) |
The first R40s entered service on March 23, 1968. Various modifications were made over the years to the R40 fleet, including a complete overhaul from 1987–1989 by Sumitomo Corp. of America. The R160 subway car order replaced all of the R40s and R40As from 2007 to 2009; the last slant-ended train ran on June 12, 2009, while the last straight-ended R40As ran on August 28, 2009. After being retired, most R40s and R40As were stripped and sunk into the Atlantic Ocean as artificial reefs, but a pair of R40 slants and several straight-ended R40As have survived.