New NYC Subway cars being delivered (video)

[CMStPnP]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e979rE1ClAk

 

[blue streak 1]

Several observations but corrections requested.

1.  How were the cars deliverd to MTA?

2.  At least 10 persons to operate ferry move

3.  70 - RB410 - 890 appeared to be MUed together with standard 27 point cables. Also standard brake line air connectors.  Sounded like 888 was only traction power ?

4.  RB410 had 3rd rail pickup shoes. can that car operate traction on third rail without locos operating ?  Can lead loco control the RB410 ?

5.  Noticed standard type "H" adaptors on both ends of of sub car train set.

6.  Any idea why 888 was added to end of ferry move ?  

7.  New cars control cab ends appeared to have angled LED strip headlightls.  Did not see rear marker lights

8.  Horn use certainly did not use standard FRA signals when on LIRR tracks.  3 short toots used for about all items.  

[daveklepper]

1.  The cars may have been delivered to Bay Ridge via the New York and Atlantic from Fresh Pond Yard over LIRR-owned Bay-Ridge-Branch  tracks, or by car-ferry from Greenville by Bush Terminal/Port Authority barge.  The movement in the video itself was entirely Tranist Authority's South Brooklyn Railroad, as the terminating carrier.  No operation over LIRR tracks was shown.  The initial ground-level movement, wirh the two TA low-emmision diesels operating in MU, was on Bush Terminal tracks, Port Authority-owned, where the TA has runnig rights.  The operation after the second diesel moved to the rear of the train was entirely on TA tracks, using the West End line, currently operared by the "D," with the last moving-train pictures on elevated structure being on that structure connecting the West End Line directly to Coney Island yards and shops.  This structure has a wye connection to the elevated structure used by the "D" south of Bay Parkway Station.  What is very confusing, is that the subsequent photographs, both moving and still,.took us back to Bay Ridge, iinstead of delivery to C. I. Yard.

2.  The three-door yellow rider cars have MU lines thorugh them, allowing MU operation of diesels front and rear.  It cannot mu itself with modern subway cars (or with the diesels),  and may even be purely a trailer, but probably not, and can probably still MU with the remaining work-train fleet up to R36 converted cars.  If a trailer, it still has  MU wires for both the older compatible subway cars and for the diesels.

3.  All Transit Authority equipment can be train-lined for normal air-brake operation.  But when the diesel was on the rear, it could not be MUed with the diesel at the front.  I suspect the extra people riding the front of the diesel in the first pictures included the crew for the second diesel when at the rear.  The diesel on the rear makes sense when operating on tracks normally used by revenue trains, in case a reverse move is required because of  unespected operating circumstances.  I could not tell if it was providing power itself when at the rear.  Can another reader?

[daveklepper]

And 72-1/2 years ago, also a South Brooklyn operation, but with the cars delivered to SBR at the Avenue H and McDonald Avenue LIRR connection by the LIRR itself:

 

 

 

 

 

[daveklepper]

To leave no question unanswered, all recent NYCity subway cars have combination headlights-tail-lights, red when at the rear and white at the front, and automatic changining eith the controller reverse keys.  Isn't this true of many rapid transit and light-rail systems today?

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

CTA rapid transit uses two headlights and two separate taillights mounted just below the windows on the outer ends of each married pair.

[OWTX]

They were trucked to the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, and were railed there using a portable ramp.

https://youtu.be/mykFjYorYlg

[daveklepper]

Since the subway train arrived at the Port Authority's South Brooklyn Marine Terminsl by highway, rather than by rail, the movement was certainly just Transit Authority, and not South Brooklyn Railway.  Same people, same equipment, just very different, and much less, paperwork.

And there may have been a reverse move, even some seesawing, to properly position the cars at Coney Island Shops and Yard, an additional reason for the diesel at the rear.

[daveklepper]

Video of first test operatinn:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_kFJvNqBfM

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_kFJvNqBfM

[blue streak 1]

Do the diesel switchers have provision for trip arm protection ?

[daveklepper]

Yes.  Defimnitely.   As did South Brooklyn steeplecabs. 

It could be de-activated.

[Pauley]

I watched the entire video – what a geek I am! 

 

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. In fact, it reminded me of an incident.

 

Growing up in Boston, I spent lots of time on the subway and trolleys – that’s where I became a railfan. (I was the guy with his nose against the front window in the days before the driver's compartment was stretched across the entire front.)

 

One time, I think in the early 60s, I was riding the red line to Ashmont station (I think it was simply called the Cambridge-Dorchester line back then). At a station approaching Ashmont (I think it might have been Savin Hill), I was stunned at the sight of a beautiful blue train sitting on the other side of the center platform. I jumped off in hopes of getting a ride. As it turns out, like in the above video, it was a test train from a fleet that would soon replace the antiques on that line. (I think the old cars were originally from the 20s!)

 

If I recall correctly, Boston subway cars were always linked in pairs (or multiples thereof) with a driver’s compartment at each end. In looking at the video above, it appears that it is a six-car set with only the end cars equipped for a driver. Is that how they ran? 

[daveklepper]

Look closely, and it may be a  five-car set.   Or if the train consists of six cars, them it is a five-car set with one single unit having a  cab at b oth ends.