R8A (New York City Subway car)

"R8A" redirects here. For the Canadian postal code, see List of R postal codes of Canada. For the haplogroup, see Haplogroup R (mtDNA). For the road, see List of highways numbered 8.

The R8A was a class of New York City Subway revenue cars built in 1939 by the St. Louis Car Company, and used to gather and transport tokens from stations along the IND division. 66 and 67 were the only two cars built. In their final years, they were renumbered twice, first as 20176 and 20177, and again as 30176 and 30177.^[1]

R8A
R8A 66 at the 207th Street Yard
In service	1939–1970s
Manufacturer	St. Louis Car Company
Constructed	1939
Number built	2
Number preserved	0
Number scrapped	2
Capacity	9 (???)
Operators	Independent Subway System NYC Board of Transportation New York City Subway
Specifications
Car length	44 feet 7+1⁄2 inches (13.6 m)
Width	10 feet (3.05 m)
Height	12 feet 1+15⁄16 inches (3.71 m))
Weight	59,640 pounds (27,052 kg)
Electric system(s)	600 V DC Third rail
Current collection	Contact shoe
Braking system(s)	Westinghouse Air Brake Company electro-pneumatic brake
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)

Being blind motors, the cars were usually towed around by a set of out of service R1–9 cars. 66 was last operated in 1970, after which it was removed from service, and sent to Jamaica Yard Training Services, to be used as a shed. It was removed some time before 1990 and scrapped. Car 67 was used as a school car, until it was scrapped in April 1986.^[1]