Trolley Thursday 12/16/20 - The IND and NYCTA R-Type Subway Cars

If you are an upstart street railroad in America, you'd think the way to pack your rosters is to approach a company like J.G. Brill or G.C. Kuhlman and offer to buy one of their standard, cataloged designs out of a pamphlet. Often times, street railways in Philadelphia or Cincinnati would actually collaborate with their local carmakers to design products to fit their own needs, like the famous Peter Witt Car. For a city as big and as varied as New York, however, they decided to do things a little differently. Starting in the Electric Railway Journal, the city's Board of Transportation advertised that it would "soon advertise for bids for the construction of 300 steel cars for service on the Eighth Avenue-Central Park West-Washington Heights line of the new subway system." Little did the Board and their operating division, the Independent Subway Service, know that over 90 years later, these contract bids would still be going with the car numbers types rising to almost 200 by this year! (2020) How did all of this happen? Hop on board today's Trolley Thursday to find out, as we take a ride on board New York's R-Type Fleet!