Trolley Tuesday 10/15/20 - New York City Elevated Cars of the IRT and BMT

The City of New York's elevated and subway cars have always been a curious anachronism, even when they were still in service. Some of the first elevated electric cars in 1903 worked all the way up to 1950, with the last pre-New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) car designs being retired in 1969. However, despite their long working lives, many of the original Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) and Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit (BMT) designs pioneered plenty of revolutionary ideas that modern R-Contract subway cars continue to use today. On today's Trolley Tuesday, let's strip the curtain back and take a close look at the rapid transit cars that shaped New York City!

Steaming In the Skies

Steam Dummy "Brooklyn" trials experimental "shad-belly" cars in 1879.
This car was not a "bi-level", but had its floors closer to the rail for better stability. 
(Tenement Museum)

A typical steam locomotive of the New York
Elevated Railroad, this one named "Spuyten Duyvel".
(Mid-Continent Railway Museum)

Before the dawn of the electric age, steam power ran New York's elevated railways as early as the late 1870s. Originally, steam dummies (steam trains in boxes) were used as they were meant to not scare the horses with all the steam and the hissing and the oy-vey, but these later proved to be rather weak. This changed in 1879, when a powerful tank engine designed by engineer Matthias N. Forney began working on both the Manhattan Elevated and the New York Elevated Railways. These tiny "Forneys" worked three-to-four-car trains all over the city, and inevitably the coal that they burned ended up falling out the fireboxes and through the ties and rails onto the streets below, often setting fire to random passersby. 

A modern Forney locomotive of the New York Elevated Railroad.
The two hoops are to hold headlights, and there is a distinct lack of a sand dome.
(Brooklyn Historic Railway Association)

A Harper's Weekly cover image of the Brooklyn Bridge
Railway's New York Terminal, with the 2-4-2T tank
engines working the trains in and out of the terminal.
(Catskills Archives)

In the 1890s, electrification was trialed on the New York & Brooklyn Bridge Railway by installing a prototype electric motor by Frank J. Sprague (who invented the modern traction motor as we know it) onto an unpowered coach car. The electrification was such a success, saving money and entrusting good will on the riders and citizens, that in 1894, the New York City Council gave the elevated lines carte-blanche to upgrade their lines with electric third rail. The once-iconic Forney locomotives found new life elsewhere, with most ending up in Alaska as mining locomotives before being abandoned in the winter tundra.

The Gates of Electricity Are Opened!

Some of the first purpose-built subway cars delivered to the New York Elevated was the 1903 "Composite" Class, Nos. 2000-2159. Built by various manufacturers including Jewett, St. Louis Car, and Wason, the "Composites" got their name from their combined steel and wood car construction. IRT's chief engineer, George Gibbs, believed that a strong and safe subway car was built to heavy-rail construction, but the manufacturers disagreed. They argued that steel was louder, less comfortable, and trapped less heat than a standard wooden car; at the same time, Jewett, St. Louis Car, and Wason were all swamped with orders and had none of the financial backing to take on such an enterprising concept. Thus, in order to meet the opening deadline of October 27, 1904 for the first IRT subway line, a compromise was made to get the Composites out to the City of New York as quick as possible.

The prototype IRT "Composite" cars, "August Belmont" (front) and "John B. McDonald" (rear)
pose at Wason's factory grounds in Springfield, MA, 1902.
(Public Domain)

The interior of the 1904-production IRT Composites,
showing the "Manhattan-style" rattan seats and leather
handholds.
(Public Domain)

The "Composite" construction came from the use of wooden frames with steel bracing and copper sides along the outside, leading to the shop nickname of "copper-sides". As fire was a risk for wooden cars, the entire thing was packed with asbestos from under the floors and around the seats. The seats were arranged in the "Manhattan Style", using two side-bench rows on either end of the car with eight forward-facing seats in the middle, popular on the now-defunct Manhattan Elevated. While the car was revolutionary in its construction, its operation surely wasn't, as the cars were originally outfitted with "Armstrong" doors (literally doors you open by hand) and kerosene lanterns to light their way in tunnels (in the event of a power failure, the kerosene lights would stay on).

A BRT "Gate Car" trailer in its standard configuration. The lack of end lanterns
on the roof indicate this is a trailer, surrounded by two "motor" cars.
(Arkansas Railroad History)

A surviving three-set of BRT "Gate Cars" running
thanks to the New York Transit Museum in 2019.
(Fan Railer)

Above the Composites, the first elevated cars to run in New York City were made from mass-coach conversions following the end of steam operations. These featured open platforms for the motorman and conductor and not much else in the way of luxurious amenities. Later cars of this type were ordered by the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT, eventually the BMT in 1920) from Jewett in 1907 and had some of the longest service lives on the New York Elevated ever, with the oldest running up until 1969. These were popularly known as "Gate Cars", from the manual gates the conductor had to open and close to let people on and off at stations, and worked more or less the same until 1938, when they were rebuilt into side-door, enclosed-platform cars for the 1939 New York World's Fair.

To Hi-V, or Lo-V?

A tribute to George Gibbs in
Philadelphia's railroad station,
commemorating his work on the
PRR's GG1 electric locomotive.
(North America by Rail)

The big revolution in New York Subway Car design came almost immediately after the first "Composite" cars were design in 1903. Chief Engineer George Gibbs was incensed that he had to compromise on his first subway car designs, so he tasked the Pennsylvania Railroad's Altoona Shops to construct a prototype steel subway car, numbered 3342. Like the other manufacturers rightly guessed, the car was too heavy to run on rails when it was first tested in February 1904, but it did prove Gibbs right that steel cars were practical as there was no vibration, poor insulation, or loud noise. How Gibbs lightened his car was through the use of "skeleton" floor frames, constructing cross-members like a bridge girder rather than a flat-floor car, as was common of railroad cars up to that point. As no other company would work on it, the nascent American Car & Foundry (AC&F) of New Jersey was tasked with construction.

The first order of 300 steel cars were originally delivered in 1904, with each car being a single unit rather than a pair. The "Gibbs Hi-V" nickname came from both the designer and the fact that all 600V DC current went through the motorman's stand, which certainly posed a danger should there be an arc in the stand. AC&F subsequently delivered two more Hi-V designs until 1915, the "Deck Roof" of 1907 that comprised of 50 cars and the "Hedley" of 1910-1915 from ACF, Pressed Steel, Standard Steel, and Pullman. Between the two, they were all the same on the inside with the same underpinnings, but the "Deck Roofs" literally had a flatter roof profile, while the "Hedleys" were the first cars built with center doors along with the already-safety-conscious twin side doors are either end. After these cars, the IRT switched to the more-numerous "Lo-V" design.

Two of the three Hi-V Variants, the Gibbs Hi-V at left and the "Deck Roof" Hi-Vs at right.
(John Vervoort, Public Domain)

The Lo-V cars in diagram form.
(NYCSubway.org)

The "Lo-V" cars utilized the latest development of street railway controllers known as the "Hand-Line" system under Westinghouse. Instead of 600V running through the stand, the control stand was hooked up to a 32-volt battery motor circuit under the cars that controlled contact relays under the car and away from the motorman. The Lo-Vs were also originally built using the trucks and components from the "Composites", and served the Manhattan and Bronx lines when they first entered operation in 1915. The interiors, made of spartan rattan seats with ceiling fans providing decent airflow, along with the rough ride of their steel construction earned these cars the loving nickname "Flivver", after automobiles like the Model T Ford. 178 "Flivver" Lo-Vs were set upon IRT from the Pullman Company and remained relatively separated from their incompatible Hi-V cousins.

Four preserved Standard Lo-V cars run on a fantrip in 2009.
(Oren Hirsch)

The spartan interior of the Standard Lo-V, with metal
sprung-hinged hand holds.
(DilligentDogs)

Like the Hi-Vs, the Lo-Vs came in three other specific variants: The "Steinway", "Standard", and "World's Fair." The "Steinways" earned their name not from the Manhattan piano company of the same name, but the Steinway Tunnel that opened on the IRT Corona Line under the East River in 1915. These cars featured special gear ratios to climb the steep grades out of the tunnels, and arrived from Pressed Steel, American Car, and Pullman in 1915, 1916, and 1925. The "Standards" were the most numerous IRT car in their fleet, with over 1,000 cars being ordered from Pullman and AC&F from 1916 to 1925 over four orders. These cars were ordered for the busy IRT Lexington Line express trains, but soon found themselves working anywhere on what eventually became the NYCTA's "A" Division. The last variant, the "World's Fair", were single-ended cars built by St. Louis Car that were based on the Steinway Lo-Vs but matched the more contemporary BMT Standards listed below, just in time for the 1939 New York World's Fair and its subway service on the IRT Flushing Line. 

An enormous line of Steinway Lo-Vs in service
in 1963, on the eve of their retirement.
(Fair Use)

A World's Fair Lo-V in service in 1968.
(PenelopeBillerica2017)

Real Steel

Original diagram of the BRT's A/B Standard steel cars. Quite roomy, aren't they?
(NYCSubway.org)

A preserved lineup for A/B standards celebrating the
BMT centennial at Brighton Beach in 2015.
(The All-Nite Images)

On what eventually became the NYCTA's "B" Division, the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Company (BMT) also started with antiquated gate stock originally running on the Brooklyn Union Elevated Railroad (BU). These cars were either steam railroad conversions or new-built cars from more traditional passenger car companies like Osgood-Bradley and Laconia, along with streetcar and interurban manufacturers like Jewett, Cincinnati, and Brill. These "BU" cars were later replaced in 1915 by the "A/B Standard", constructed by AC&F and Pressed Steel. Bigger, longer, and comfier than their Lo-V counterparts, the 950 "A/B Standard" (or "Steels" as per their shop nickname) cars originally started in trolley service on the Sea Beach Line, with poles mounted on the roof to facilitate safe shop movements. These cars were later more ubiquitous on the Coney Island Lines, but served throughout the whole of BMT's system.

The fancy interior of the A/B Standard, as preserved
at the New York Transit Museum.
(Michael Hicks)

The biggest breakthrough the A/B's brought was being able to one-man the doors. Before this modification in 1923, all New York rapid transit cars operated with one motorman per train and one conductor per car. The BMT was able to streamline this but allowing one conductor to operate the doors through one door lever from his set position on the train. This saved the company loads in labor costs, and pretty soon other companies followed suit. The passengers also enjoyed the new features of the A/B Standards, as they were seen as more spacious and comfortable with their increased length and width. The cars even featured shades and electric heaters, along with soft incandescent lights, which further made them a must-ride on the BMT system (all of these features were eventually removed due to maintenance costs). The cars also featured new electric lights and (a massive innovation to New York) roll-signs instead of metal hanging dash signs. 

The infamous Brill "Maximum Traction" truck, with the larger-diameter axle usually
carrying the traction motor. They're great if your cars aren't heavy or you have no hills.
(Seashore Trolley Museum)

Restored A/B cars in 1978 travel along the former
Fulton Street Elevated at Rockaway Blvd.
(Doug Grotjahn)

Unfortunately, the biggest hinderance to the A/Bs turned out to be their speed. While they used the same low-voltage controls that the IRT used on their Lo-V cars, the trucks were the infamous Brill "maximum traction" trucks that had one motor per two-axle truck. As shown on other articles here, the "maximum traction" worked on hills as much as an umbrella with holes works in the rain, and having only two motors per car meant each car actually wasted electricity and ran rather slowly. The AB Standard's weedy GE 248A motors only put out 140HP across a 48 ton car, which is even worse power-to-weight than the original Volkswagen Beetle. Nevertheless, the A/Bs soldiered on as BMT's primary car and even gained additional modifications in under NYCTA, with a mass rebuild in the 1960s providing them with new lights, seat cushions, modern GE controls, and sealed beam headlights. The last AB standard ran on the Myrtle-Chambers Line in 1969.

Jersey Interlopers

An SIRT ME-1 is seen in 1973, working some of the last services on Staten Island.
(George Conrad)

A train of BMT ME-1s, led by No. 2920, works on the
BMT Culver Line in November, 1955. 
(George Conrad)

Supplementing the AB Standards on BMT were the 100 ME-1 class rapid transit cars purchased from the Staten Island Rapid Transit (SIRT). Originally built in 1925 by the Standard Steel Car Company, these steel cars were bought and worked under the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (who owned the SIRT) in preparation for the Staten Island Tunnel. As the railway was planned to connect to the BMT's Fourth Avenue Line, the ME-1s were built to BMT standards with a 67 foot length, a 10 foot width, and three rows of doors per car. Incredibly, they were also faster than the BMT AB Standards despite having the same amount of motors with a stock top speed of 60 miles per hour and generating 200HP per motor. When the SIRT closed two of its three lines in 1953, 25 of these cars were sold to the NYCTA to run on the "B" Division. They had the shortest working lives on the regular rapid transit, only lasting in New York until 1961. The ones left behind on the SIRT, incredibly, ran until 1973 with all but four lasting in peak operation. 

Snaking Overhead

A General Electric print ad

from 1925, touting their importance

to New York's elevated railways.

(NYCsubway.org)

The BMT also tried out some very weird cars after the AB Standards of 1924. Always eager to expand their passenger capacity, the BMT contracted the Pressed Steel Company to create the first articulated rapid transit rolling stock in the United States (even before the famous Key System "Bridge Units"). Assembled in three sections and lettered "A-B-C" accordingly, four prototypes of the "D-Type Triplex" left the Pressed Steel company in 1925, followed by 117 production units starting in 1927-1928 to supplement the AB Standard Fleet. The reason for the immense triplexing of the cars was simply due to growing capacity concerns without sacrificing loading gauge clearances on curves.

Set to work on the BMT's Southern Division, the cars made a name for themselves by working the Brighton Local and Sea Beach Expresses on the Fourth Avenue Line. Later, when the BMT Astoria Line was constructed, most of the Brighton Local cars were transferred onto the Astoria Line to run the "Brighton Express" with six- or eight-car consists. For both passengers and crew, despite their unique articulated construction, the D-Types served New York City without fuss or major work, in fact being the most reliable of any New York Subway type prior to the "R-Contract" cars. These cars lasted until 1965, when they finished their careers on the Brighton Express.

Two preserved sets of BMT Triplexes and one set of A/B Standards
work the annual New York Transit Museum "Nostalgia Train" in June 2018.
(Fan Railer)

Look at this sad worm. He's got pouty cheeks.
(The Third Rail)

However, BMT was not done with their articulated experiments, even after the Great Depression decimated their finances and a merger with the IRT and the IND seemed imminent. In 1934, building on from the momentum of the D-Type Triplex, BMT tasked Pullman-Standard to create two prototypes for a larger articulated car. The two ended up being the sad-looking worm known as the "Green Hornet" and the super-flashy, Budd-inspired "Zephyr" (coincidentally, the Zephyr was built at the same time as the real Pioneer Zephyr). 

The BMT "Zephyr" working on the Franklin Shuttle in 1939.
(Joe Testagrose)

Quite insanely, these cars were 5-car articulated with the confusing lettering scheme of "A-B-C-B1-A1". They were among the largest single-unit rapid transit vehicles built in North America, with the Green Hornet reaching a staggering 170 feet long, while the Zephyr was just two feet, six inches shorter at 168 feet and 6 inches long. After the merger into the NYCTA in 1940, the Green Hornet was scrapped in 1942 for its valuable aluminum body. The Zephyr remained in service on the BMT Franklin Avenue Line until 1954, and was scrapped in 1959. 

A builder's photo of the BMT MS cars out of St. Louis Car
in 1934.
(TheJoeKorner.com)

The two BMT prototypes eventually led to the "MS Multi-Section" subway cars of 1959, built by Pullman and St. Louis Car. Working on the BMT Canarsie Line between Canarsie, Brooklyn and Eighth Avenue, the cars were troublesome at first (especially around the truck bolsters), but soon proved reliable for the most part. In December, 1956, the cars were transferred to the Myrtle-Chambers Line (which at that point gained a reputation for housing all of NYCTA's oddballs), and worked until 1961. Incredibly, their biggest selling point was the rapid acceleration (4 mph/s) and high top speed (53mph), but the maintenance problems meant that the Multi-Sections were not long for the world. At the very least, this interesting class of multiple-unit did give rise to the original "door closing" warning tone with the Green Hornet car. This feature wouldn't be standard on New York subway cars until 1971.

End of An Era

The last IRT Lo-V train runs the Electric Railroad Association
"Goodbye" charter on October 24, 1964.
(Seashore Trolley Museum)

As great as all of these New York City elevated and subway cars were, they were already past their sell-by date when the NYCTA began a mass-retirement program in 1960. Some of the first to go included the AB Standards, the ME-1s, and the Multis on the "B" Division, while the elevated "A" Division retired all of their Hi-Vs by 1959, with the Lo-Vs being retired heavily in 1969. The very last of New York's classic subway cars, the Standard Lo-Vs, finished their work on a small section on the IRT Third Avenue Line, with some escaping retirement and scrapping to be converted into work cars. The fleet was now almost all New York City Transit "R-Contract" cars with the first ones dating back to the original Independent Subway System (IND) of 1932. More information on them on Thursday!

Survivors 

Ex-IRT No. 561 (leading) and 563 (rear) run a postwar
chartered excursion on the Key System F Line, still in
Richmond Shipyard Railway paint.
(Western Railway Museum) 

30 ex-BMT and 17 ex-IRT cars have survived the scrapper's torch, spread across most of the Northeastern United States. The most-western survivors have been ex-IRT No. 561 and 563, two of many Manhattan Railway "Gate Stock" trailer cars that were sold to the city of Richmond, CA in 1943 for the Richmond Shipyard Railway, a temporary mass transit line serving the Kaiser Shipyards in California's Bay Area. In 1945, the two cars were sold to the Railway & Locomotive Historical Society and operated on member charters, before finding their new home at the Western Railway Museum in Rio Vista, California. The cars have since been restored to their Richmond condition, with No. 561 operating occasionally. Another IRT car of the same vintage found its way onto the Knox & Kane Railroad of Marienville, PA, where since 1998, it has operated as coach No. 782. It is currently stored in its yard, lettered for its first preservation owner, "Penn-View Mountain Railroad".

Ex-BRT Snowplow No. 10, proving it's not about the size, but how you use it.
(NYCSubway.org)

"Deck Roof" Hi-V No. 3662 leads "Steinway" Lo-V
No. 5655 on a 2001 excursion run at the Shore Line
Trolley Museum.
(HopeTunnel.Org))

Other ex-subway and elevated cars have come under the care of the Shore Line Trolley Museum of Branford, Connecticut, which boasts the largest collection at 6 ex-IRT cars and 13 ex-BMT cars among their ranks. The oldest car at Shore Line is Snow Plow No. 10, a diminutive works car built for the Nassau Electric Railway in 1898 by the Taunton Locomotive Works and inherited by the BRT in 1899, then the BMT in 1923. The car retired in 1957 and remains operable at Branford since then. Shore Line also owns two examples of the Type-D Triplex, Nos. 6095 and 6019, which run on the NYMTA's "Nostalgia Train" every so-often, and one of two surviving Hi-V cars, this one being "Deck Roof" car No. 3662. The car has been modified with trolley poles to run on the museum overhead, but is currently awaiting restoration after being flood damaged. 

The one surviving Gibbs Hi-V car in preservation at
the Seashore Trolley Museum of Kennebunkport, ME.
(Seashore Trolley Museum)

Other cars can be found at museums like Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine, which houses the only surviving Gibbs Hi-V car No. 3352. Like "Deck Roof" 3662, the one-of-a-kind car now runs using trolley poles and is operable for the public. A lion's share of the surviving Lo-V cars have been preserved by the Railway Preservation Corp. of New York, NY, (four of them), as well as three Type A/B cars. None of the other "Multis", Lo-V, or Hi-V variants survive, as many of these cars were simply carted off for scrap iron instead of preserved for future generations.

Is This Another Advertisement for the NY Transit Museum? You Bet Your Brooklyn Dodgers!

A choice taster of the New York Transit Museum's wonderful collection,
including the BRT "Gate Cars" and BMT "A/B" cars at left, an IND "Arnine",
and a World's Fair R33 at right.
(IRT47)

Finally, it would be remiss of me to not mention the New York Transit Museum and their own stunning collection of pre-NYCTA cars. Besides using Shore Line's two Type-D Triplexes for excursion service, they operate a set of 1902 and 1907-original Brooklyn Rapid Transit "Gate Cars" numbered 1273, 1404 and 1407, a Jewett BMT "Q" Car No. 1612C (which was later rebuilt into a work car after its Worlds Fair service, and a BMT Type A/B No. 2204. When these beauties roll out of the Court Street Station and out onto the elevated, it's always a unique sight to see as these showroom-condition cars can still upstage their modern R-contract counterparts. After all, these cars lasted in over 50 years of service on New York's rails, what's another 50 years?

Thank you for reading today's Trolley post, and watch your step as you alight on the platform. My resources and museums today included the Shore Line Trolley Museum of Branford, Connecticut, the Seashore Trolley Museum of Kennebunkport, Maine, the Western Railway Museum of Portola, California, and the New York Transit Museum of New York, New York. These museums need your help to get them through this difficult time of railway preservation, and it would make my Christmas seeing them able to last through this uncertain time. The trolley gifs in our posts are made by Brian Clough and can be found on his site, Banks of the Susquehanna. On Thursday, we look at the IND fleet and the New York R-Contract Cars that can be ridden today! For now, you can follow myself or my editor on Twitter, buy a shirt or sticker from our Redbubble stand, or purchase my editor's self-developed board game! It's like Ticket to Ride, but cooler! (and you get to support him through it!) Until next time, ride safe!