clausenjh

17 hours ago, trainfan22 said:

In the middle of March before things got crazy they were barely using the R32s. If they do come back I hope they don't run everyday and run at random times so railfans have a hard time finding them 

Easy enough. Wait at Chambers, Fulton or High Street. You'll see the whole C service in an hour, slightly longer for the A.

I've just returned home to the UK from a six day trip to New York City. I wanted to do as much of the A line as possible on R32 cars. I had a ride to Far Rockaway back in February 2010 but I'd never been to 207th of Lefferts Boulevard. My observations suggest there were only two or three sets of R32 on the A each day. I expected them to run only in the rush hours but the ones I saw tended to be out all day. On the C there were generally nine R32, three R46 and six R179 I think. I didn't see the 10 car R179 on the A at all. Has it been running this past week?

March 13th I covered the pm rush hour at Chambers Street, observations with times as follows.

Dowtown

3:30 3870+3461+3619+3448

3:35 3154+3174

3:42 3664+3717+3736+3610

3:59 3514+3673+3929+3771

4:08 3731+3778+3476+3714

4:14 5954+5912

4:21 3209+3213

4:25 3829+3811+3615+3414+3426 I took this train to Lefferts Boulevard and back to 42nd St.

Uptown

3:36 3173+3193

3:44 5890+5966

3:52 3522+3443+3707+3733

4:02 3654+3646+3857+3425

4:12 6004+6102

4:24 3682+3501+3688+3489

5:54 3807+?+3804+3637

March 14th we headed out intending to go from 42nd to 59th and walk across to the zoo. Imagine my surprise when the first uptown A turned out 3799+3441+3376+3819+3669. This was taken all the way to 207th St and back to 59th. There was severe congestion on the uptown express track; it crawled all the way from 86th St to 125th.

March 15th I observed the following R32 formations on the C.

3774+3890+3520+3361

3739+3729+3650+3895

3473+3913+3644+3671

3607+3835+3512+3806

3522+3443+3707+3733

3900+3682+3820+3624

Also 3654+3646+3857+3425 had switched from the C to the A but I failed to note the fifth pair of cars.

March 17th I saw a 10 car R32 running uptown out of service at 42nd St around 11:30 am. At 11:45 I saw an R32 heading to Lefferts Boulevard at 59th St. I reckoned a round trip was just under three hours so I went back at 2:30 pm. The 2:45 to Lefferts was an R46 but behind it was 3780+3468+3925+3877+3385 going to Far Rockaway! This was the first time all week I'd seen an R32 going to the Rockaways. I don't know if this was the same set I saw at 11:45. I did it to the end of the line and back to 42nd St.

There must be a lot of spare R32 cars now. Let's say up to 80 on the C and 40 on the A that leaves 102 spare. One final observation, I was surprised how little difference there is between and express and local train on the A/C. On the way back to JFK airport  we boarded a C train at 42nd, the next A to Far Rockaway was six minutes away. At Chambers Street it was still six minutes behind, at Broadway Junction two minutes behind and it arrived at Euclid about one minute behind.

3 hours ago, Enjineer said:

I've seen at least 3-4 sets running during rush hours on the . As long as you are patient and can afford to just sit and wait at a station, you can get one. It's just a matter of being at the right place at the right time, or just waiting a long time for one to come back the other way if you've seen it going away from your direction of travel. 

Thanks to everyone for the info. I'll probably wait at Fulton Street or High Street, then I'll be able to cover both directions from one platform.

6 hours ago, m2fwannabe said:

The last 12 R-160A-1's were moved 207 to East New York at end of service Wednesday evening, February 6.  Two moves:  8645-48 with 9967-70, then 8625-28 by itself.  No more R-160A-1 on .

R-46's on are missing on weekdays for now, likely pending a better reliability from the R-179's, but are still present on weekends, albeit one or two.

 

I'm visiting New York City in four weeks time. I note from the discussion that the use of R32 cars has reduced on the A recently. Is there still at least one set out on weekdays in the rush hours?