Вагон метро R38: История и вынос на заслуженный отдых

Retired class of New York City Subway car

The R38 was a New York City Subway car model built by the St. Louis Car Company from 1966 to 1967 for the IND/BMT B Division. Two hundred were built in married pairs. In addition, the R38s were built to supply extra trains for service changes resulting from the 1967 opening of the Chrystie Street Connection. Moreover, the R38 was the second subway car order to be built with stainless steel exteriors, and the first subway car fleet to have air conditioning installed. The first R38s entered service on August 23, 1966. In 1987–1988, all R38s were rebuilt by General Electric. Due to the similarities between both fleets, R38s often operated in mixed consists with R32s. The R38 was the first successful subway car fleet to have air conditioning installed after earlier prototypes failed on older subway cars. The last ten cars delivered (4140–4149) came factory equipped with Stone Safety 10 ton split system air conditioning system featuring the compressor/condenser units mounted under the cars, while the evaporator units were installed on the top interior ends of the car in 1967. The first six air conditioned cars came into service on the F train on July 19, 1967. The six week experiment was a success after past failures, and air conditioning would soon, but not immediately, become standard equipment on new rolling stock built for the system, since the first 200 R40 cars were built without air conditioning. The air conditioned cars cost $40,000 more than the non air conditioned cars. From this point on, the New York City Transit Authority began adopting air conditioning as standard equipment on all new cars, and older model cars were retrofitted with AC units to make life much more bearable throughout the subway system. The Stone Safety Air Conditioning system was adopted from their standard railroad and commuter coach air conditioning systems, and it proved very successful.

In March 1965, the New York City Transit Authority, continuing its program of car replacement, ordered 200 additional cars for the B Division from the St. Louis Car Company. These cars were the first to replace cars for the IND since it started operation in 1932. They also supplied extra trains for the Chrystie Street Connection, which opened on November 27, 1967. St. Louis was chosen after the first three bids were deemed as too high, with the cost savings totalling $500,000. In 1987–1988, The rest of the fleet was gradually phased out from October 31, 2008, until the last pair, cars 4098–4099, made its final trip on the on March 18, 2009, in a mixed consist with three R32 pairs. After retirement, all cars except for 4028–4029 were stripped and sunken as artificial reefs. Cars 4028–4029 are preserved for the New York Transit Museum. They were restored to operating status in 2013–2014 and have been operating on New York City Transit Museum sponsored excursions since August 3, 2014, specifically on the Train of Many Metals (TOMM).

The opening scene of a 1977 movie Saturday Night Fever shows a train of R38s on the , prior to refurbishment. The scene on a subway train in a 1988 movie Coming to America was shot on an R38 on the , also prior to refurbishment. The subway scene in a 1988 movie Crocodile Dundee II features an R38 train on the , after refurbishment. The subway scene in a 1990 movie Ghost features an R38 train on the , also after refurbishment. The subway scene in a 2002 movie Men in Black II, features an alien entering a tunnel. Once there, it attacks and devours most of a subway train (which is a combination of R32 and R38 cars) until Agent J destroys it. He is then seen walking out of the station, 81st Street – Museum of Natural History, on the This movie also depicts the R38s after refurbishment.

The trains in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV are based on the R38s.