R33 World's Fair (New York City Subway car)

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The R33 World's Fair (R33 WF) was a New York City Subway car model built in late 1963 by the St. Louis Car Company for the IRT A Division.

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Description

The R33 World's Fair cars were numbered 9306-9345. They were built before the 1964 New York World's Fair.

The R33 World's Fair cars were very similar to the R33s, save for differently shaped side windows (three-piece curved windows on the R33 World's Fair cars as opposed to three-sectioned rectangular windows on the R33s), and the fact that the R33 World's Fair cars were single cars with a cab at both ends. The cars were built as single cars to make 11-car trains with the R36 World's Fair cars, which were built as married pairs.

Although the R33/36 World's Fair cars were later referred to as Redbirds, the cars were originally painted in a light turquoise blue and white upon delivery. This "Bluebird" paint color scheme was used until the mid-1970s when they were painted in the silver/blue MTA livery. Then they were painted a full white (roof, bonnets, sides were all painted white) from 1981 to 1982 to combat graffiti; since the white paint was a Teflon-based paint, the graffiti did not stick to it very well. The look was abandoned for the famous Redbird style. The Redbirds were painted between 1984 and 1989 to a deep maroon red body, black front bonnets and anti-climbers, and a silver roof.

Maps R33 World's Fair (New York City Subway car)

History

The first R33 World's Fair cars were placed in service on the 7 train on September 26, 1963. The cars were solely assigned to the 7 (IRT Flushing Line) and were based out of Corona Yard.

The R33 World's Fair cars were rebuilt in-house in 1985 by the Coney Island Shop. However, they were not retrofitted with air conditioning system and instead retained their original Axiflow ceiling fans. For this reason, they were not used during the summer months due to poor air circulation or air flow and high humidity.

Retirement and after-life service

In 1998, New York City Transit announced that it would phase out its Redbird cars - R26, R28, R29, R33 and R36 - with modern R142 and R142A cars. While the Redbirds on the IRT Main Line were beginning to be retired starting in early 2001, the 7 service was still provided by R36 WFs and R33 WFs. In January 2002, a set of R62As arrived from the IRT mainline. As more R142s and R142As were delivered, R62As were gradually transferred from the 3 and 6 to the 7, in turn replacing the R36WFs. There were still many R36 WFs the vast majority of Subway cars on the 7 in 2002, since delivery of the R142s and R142As was slow that year. However, by mid-2003 R33 WF/R36 WF trains were dwindling on the 7 service. Only a few sets were running by fall. The last car, 9309, made its final trip on November 3, 2003 on the 7 service with ten R36 WF cars, marking the end of the Redbirds and non-stainless steel cars in the subway.

Most R33 World's Fair cars were converted to work motors in the early 2000s, and handle such tasks as providing traction for B-Division rail adhesion cars and refuse trains. The number "1" was placed before the former number (i.e. car 9345 became 19345) of some cars. The work cars are based out of various yards around the system and handle such tasks as providing traction for A-Division rail adhesion cars and refuse trains, and hauling cars during car moves between different subway yards. The cars that were not converted were 9306 and 9327, which were preserved as heritage cars after their retirement from revenue service, and 9321, which was stripped and sunken as an artificial reef in 2001.

Recently, the remaining R33 World's Fair cars have been decommissioned as they experience structural or mechanical issues. Car 9339 was retired, stripped, and then sunken as an artificial reef in 2010 after it suffered fire damage that year. Then, in 2013, a handful of cars were stripped of parts before being scrapped to keep other IRT SMEE cars running. Most recently, four cars were sidelined in 2017, two of which were preserved.

The four currently preserved cars are 9306, which has been a part of the New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn since 1976 (the only R33 WF car to not be rebuilt), 9307, which has been a part of the New York Transit Museum since 2017 (painted in the same paint scheme as 9306), 9310, which has also been part of the New York Transit Museum since 2017 (painted in the Redbird paint scheme), and 9327, which is at the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine. All cars are in operational condition and run periodically, with the first three mentioned cars running as part of the Train of Many Colors.

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List of cars

A detailed list of the 40 R33 World's Fair cars is below, where bolded numbers indicate a car active in work service:

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See also

• R36 World's Fair - a married pair version and a very similar model also built by St. Louis Car Company.

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References

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External links

• Media related to R33 (New York City Subway car) at Wikimedia Commons

Source of the article : Wikipedia