BRONX, N.Y. — It’s been three years since the public has had the opportunity to ride New York City Transit’s fleet of vintage subway equipment. That is scheduled to change Friday, April 8, when the century-old Interborough Rapid Transit “Lo-V” cars are slated to operate for opening day at Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees’ opener, originally scheduled for Thursday, April 7, has been postponed because of weather.
It takes extensive preparation to keep these cars running, and my visit to the maintenance shop where the Lo-Vs live shows the work needed to maintain a flawless operation.
The maintenance list has been worked on for weeks. Parts need to be tested, repaired or replaced — time-consuming efforts that need to be completed by a fast-approaching, drop-dead date.
On this day, the maintenance crew has these items to repair or replace: third-rail connectors to power the train; checking compressors that have to work with the propulsion systems; checking the door system for connectivity issues; and a little touch-up paint. This is just one day for one car.
Complicating the situation is that two years of COVID-19 issues have meant new workers had to be recruited to replace experienced maintenance employees. Since the Lo-Vs last ran for the Yankee opener in 2019, new crew members also need orientation with the returning crew.
The New York City Transit Authority is starting as it did in 2002, developing mechanical and operational skills, and engaging in team building between the Car Equipment Department and the Transportation Department. This time, the process is a little easier because some people remain involved with have the leadership and skills necessary to forge ahead.
The accompanying photos will give you a sense of the hard work these men do.
— Updated at 1:45 p.m. CDT to note postponement of Yankee opener.
As a Yankee fan I was always mad that it took two trains for me to get to Yankee Stadium but only one to get to Shea!
Electric City will be running 11 trolley trips from Scranton up to PNC Park at Montage on home Sundays during the season to baseball games of the SWB Railriders, the AAA affiliate of the NY Yankees. Fare is $25.00 including a ticket to the game.
So the fans, as well as the ball club, are the Railriders.
ERA ran a trip with these cars over much of the system and CERA joined them back in 2012. They were a joy to experience of Seeing much of the New York City system. Glad to see them, not just stuffed and mounted, but running in their natural habitat.
“Glad to see them, not just stuffed and mounted, but running in their natural habitat.” Amen to that!!! I grew up on the West Side of Manhattan near the IRT, today’s NYCSubway A Division, 72nd Street & Broadway station. I rode these cars lots.
The City of Philadelphia (owner of the Broad St. Subway) has preserved at least one car from each of the three groups of original cars. They don’t operate any more.
SEPTA has a PCC in the basement of its headquarters next to the Market-Frankford Line 12th – 13th Sts. Station. They retained 1940 air-electric PCC 2054 for fantrips and other festive occasions, but have since retired it and it’s now at the Electric City Trolley Museum in Scranton awaiting restoration.
BTW the NY Transit Museum is a division of the MTA.
K Schumacher, that website is actually nytransitmuseum.org (omit the c).
I visited the NYTM a few years ago on a NYC tour bus trip, and join you in recommending a visit to the museum which is in downtown Brooklyn, with NYTM stores in Manhattan at GCT and across Broadway from the Bowling Green 4/5 train stop. Neither the museum nor the stores are open 7 days a week.
Unfortunately you must now buy tix in advance which was not the case when I went there, well before the pandemic.
Here’s their trip planning page. https://www.nytransitmuseum.org/visit/
Awesome job MTA, from a born New Yorker and lifetime Yankee.
The NYC Transit Museum (nyctransitmuseum.org) has a collection of 20+ assorted historical subway cars. Several of these are on display at the Museum in Brooklyn, with the cars being changed regularly. The Museum is in the former IND Court Street station, and the two display tracks are connected to the NYC Subway system.
I’m not sure of the legal relationship between the Museum and the NYCTA, but since the TA maintains and operates these cars, it’s obviously close.
Check out their website; if you’re in New York City, it’s well worth a visit.
OH yeah! I remember riding the Low V’s on the Woodlawn (Lex) rush only express (4) in 1963. I was a kid who “lived” on the trains. Anyone out there know if the Transit Museum will resume the “Parade of Trains” yearly event at Brighton Beach Station(Q). What a wonderful free event Several trains of vintage equipment even open platform BU’s. Great weekend. The pandemic ended it two years ago.
Hats off to NYC Transit and its workers. Nice to see stories like this.
Hats off to the MTA who realize the tremendous PR, goodwill and tourism that operating these 100 year old cars on special occasions generate.
Now if DC could just figure out how to keep their new 7000 cars running without the wheels falling off….
First I ever heard of an urban transit system (as opposed to a museum) preserving heritage equipment.
Even I’m not old enough to remember these cars on the IRT. I do however well remember cars of that the vintage on the Boston MTA subways that later became the MBTA Red and Orange Lines. They rode like tanks and were just as slow and noisy.
The transportation museum at Convent Garden, London, has an old subway car on display, one that you can walk into and have a seat.
Charles – I do remember riding these cars in regular service, in my (ahem) earlier years. Fare was a nickel, then a dime. My memory is: noisy, yes, slow, not!
Fare was 15 cents when I started riding NYCTA in 1961. Back home it was 20 cents on MTA. Back then, keyboards (i.e., typewriters) had a cent character. Not so today.
I never rode NYCTA to either Far Rockaway or Rockaway Beach. That ride required two tokens, which is to say 30 cents.
Another memory is that in the days before MBTA color coding (Red, Green, Orange, Silver and Blue subways, yellow buses, and lavender regional rail), MTA’s signature color was orange. Buses and trolleys were orange, and faded orange paint could be seen on some subway cars on what became the Red Line. And as we all know, the 92-car Red Line fleet of approx. 1966 was painted blue.
Charles – When I was in high school, you went to Rockaway on the LIRR Rockaway Branch, not the subway. It went off the LIRR line from Penn Station at Rego Park, I believe. Then the NYCTA bought it and connected the subway, but charged two fares. Of course, it was already third-rail electrified. There was a Lucius-Beebe like tale at the time that in the day August Belmont could awake in the Belmont Hotel just south of Grand Central, go downstairs to his private subway car, the Mineola, ride to Atlantic Avenue on the Belmont-financed IRT, interchange to the Belmont-connected LIRR, and go to Belmont Park, his namesake racetrack. Good story.