Tech And Transit

I can't believe this ridiculous strip map discussion continued... not only is it pointless but it has nothing to do with the R188s... It's hilarious that it is being discussed on the R188 discussion thread where the R188s run on the and only the . So... for the final time, back on topic please. Yes, the R188 order is complete. All sets have been accepted, and all sets are in service at this time with no sets CBTC testing (at the moment, I'm not sure if there is a set waiting to be tested as most sets have the components installed). There are still 2 trains of 62As running with 3 5 car sets at Corona and 7 singles, 1 to place in between 2075 and 2091 and 6 to couple with 2081-2085. Both trains are still in service.

This has turned into the Combo Strip Map discussion thread... which I believe there is a thread for already. Also why is there even a discussion about merged strip maps on the B Division when the only B Division trains with strip maps are the 143s and the 160s outnumber them by quite a substantial amount.

The stainless steel panels in the R160 interiors seem to attract more vandalism instead of preventing it. Most if not all of those R160 interiors look awful now because of the stainless steel. Most notable are those acid tags which seem to be on most R160 interiors. I would have preferred it if the MTA had dropped the stainless steel interior for the R179s. Yeah, 5 car sets are always (7XX1-7XX5) with the X5 car conducting. 6 car sets are always (7XX6-79XX-7XX0) with the 6 car in the middle as well. I noticed this awhile ago, that all R188s that are paired in the middle have a "No coupler adapter in this car" sticker. It is very rare that a car with this sticker leads, unless it's testing, when they do have them lead occasionally. However, there was one instance where a car with no coupler adapter lead in service. I'm guessing the reason to have those cars conduct is in the event the train stalls, to have the coupler adapter accessible in the first car.

7491-7927-7500 is back in service after CBTC testing since the beginning of July. They'll probably pull another set OOS soon for more testing. Getting closer to 2017 when CBTC should be active. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdKiy3dddBg

The train did correctly announce that the next stop was Rector Street. It could be that the Rector Street program wasn't properly programmed to omit the destination portion of the announcement. I was on a train that came from South Ferry going Uptown, and the conductor programmed the train going to E 180 and did the same thing where the train thinks it's coming from Flatbush. The conductor did reset the program properly at Chambers Street.

When I rode the to Rector earlier, the "Rector Street bound (2)" announcement glitched and the train played the "ding-ding-dong" glitch. I'm guessing some trains still have programs that are a bit faulty. It could be that I was at Chambers, just one stop before Rector however and since the program isn't meant to play the announcement before the last stop.

If you're talking about the R62 set, then yes, 1366-1370 were all scrapped because I believe 1370 was rear ended.

It's so weird seeing 7870 and 7871 coupled together. The difference between the two sets is astounding, but it makes sense when you think about how 7866-70 has been out of service for 2 years and 7871-7876 is the dirtiest factory R188 set.

Only between 111th Street and Queensboro Plaza, and they are the B Division type ones. Countdown clocks at all stations on the should be active when CBTC goes online but I'm not sure how the announcements or text will be formatted. EDIT: In fact, a few days ago, I saw a countdown clock on the that displayed "7 lcl Hudson Yards 1 mins"...

Well looks like it is actually in service, caught it today at 5th Avenue. I apologize for being doubtful lol.

You don't need to post a pic now lol, I just caught the set. I don't know why I didn't catch it or see it yesterday, maybe it was in layup.

I mean, I did see every train that ran between 10 AM and 4 PM, including the two rush hour put-ins from Hudson Yards. I didn't see 7860-70 at all. It could be in the layup at Hudson Yards all the way in the back and I just missed it entirely.

Ok. I've just been waiting to ride that set ever since it left for CBTC testing. Didn't expect it to enter service now, but maybe it has. I didn't see it today so I don't know.

Do you have proof? Vids? Pics?

I was on the 7 all day today and didn't see it at all. I highly doubt it's in service because it is the primary CBTC test train and they are still testing CBTC components on it. I've heard it won't be in service until 2017.

I think that is the case, as I saw one train of 62As in service today, and another train in the yard. There was a 5 car set (2081-2085) in Corona, not sure when they're planning to send it to the , and there was a set of singles in the barn (1926 was the lead). It would make sense if these trains filled in for the CBTC testers as there are two sets out of service now, 7860-70 and 7491-7927-7500.

Your first post about a sign glitch on 7811 was incorrect, and I'm pretty sure this one is too. 7811 had the new program installed and has never been reverted. It is possible that maybe on of the interior displays is frozen on a specific message as it has happened in other cars but I doubt it.

7576-7935-7580 is in service paired with 7211-7215.

I know I'm a little late, but I caught the final set with 7936 testing earlier today. I can't believe the order is complete. It seems like yesterday I was reading these forums wondering when the first set of R188s would go into service. Also, 2091-2095 and 2081-2085 were in service with a single, I don't remember the number. 2071-2075 was also in service with a 6 car set of singles. 1901's front rollsign was partially showing the bullet. It wasn't leading, but I do find this strange since 1901-1905 will probably be coupled in a 5 car set and sent to the . They'll probably change the sign to the when it gets transferred to Westchester. 7581-7936-7590:

The pilot test train was supposed to be delivered in the fourth quarter of 2014. It is now the second quarter of 2016 and the pilot set still has not been delivered. On top of that, these delays are causing them to loose $50 million. They have every reason to be pissed that the first 10 cars of an order are 2 years late and are still not on property.

Yeah, I guess lol.

Not necessarily, at this point, they should look pretty much the same if they were maintained with the same standards, but they're not. 93-9800's at Jamaica look worse than some of the older 160's. And exterior wise, yes R142s on the look better than the ones on the because 239th does not clean their cars well, but on the interior, the cars look pretty much the same. It really depends on how the yard treats them. A three year difference between the R142A's at Westchester and the R142A/Supplementals at Jerome, had they both been maintained equally with the same standards, would look the same regardless of the age. A new train that's a few years old and a new train that's brand new are obviously going to look different (For example, let's just say R188 7899 and R188 7935), but after a couple of years, the trains are going to gather the same rust and grime, regardless if they were built at the beginning of the order or the end of the order. However, the main issue I have with Westchester maintenance is the interiors of the cars. Let's take two sets, one from Westchester and one from Jerome, both built around the same time, and compare. For the sake of comparison, we'll just have 7651-7655 from Westchester and 7666-7670 from Jerome. The only sets in between these are 7656-7660 and 7661-7665 (the reason I am skipping around those is because they have been switched around from Westchester to Jerome so it's hard to evaluate their state based on one yard). 7651-7655 (based at Westchester) is in terrible condition. When I rode 7651, it's lights were super dim, the light covers had grime in them, the LED interior displays were faded and worn, the strip map LED lights were barely visible they were so dim, and on the outside the train was just terrible looking. Not to mention, there are several videos on YouTube of 7652 with propulsion issues. Now when I rode 7666-7670 (just two sets away), it was much different. The lights were brighter (not crazy bright, but they were in ok condition), the exterior was clean, as well as the interior. Everything seemed to be in acceptable and working order, and it was a smooth ride, unlike 7651 which buckled constantly. There is a very big difference in maintenance between the two yards. For some sets, yes the newer Supplemental order of R142A's do look newer than the older R142A's, and yes, most newer R160's look better than the older 8700's (although, that fleet two can be used as an example of poor yard maintenance). The maintenance of a fleet depends on the yard it's at. If the yard has terrible maintenance (like Westchester, 207th or Jamaica), then the cars will look worse than cars of the same fleet that are maintained at other yards.

I agree with you on all of your points. This slapped on LED sign over the original 7 looks terrible and tacky. It's bad enough that they decided to convert cars from the , (I know that's the MTA), but now these cars have these new bright green/red LED signs which shine much brighter than the ripped up, deteriorating, and dimming mosaic sign of the R142A/188s. Not to mention when I saw the LED sign set today, the new C car insert 7928 had a super dim display, so while the display was super dim, the new LED sign was shining super bright. There is no reason why a set of R142A's running on the line should look half the age of an R142A from the line. I have observed on several occasions two R142As on both the and the pull up next to each other and the set on the looks a million times nicer. It's also sad to note that last year I rode R142A 7486 on the (pre conversion) and, although it did look terrible, it was considerably bright inside. When I got the chance to ride it after conversion, it had completely fallen apart. The lights literally looked like people had rubbed brown and yellow grime in the casing, there were burnt out lights everywhere, it was super dim, the storm door and other doors were super rusty, and the HVAC was making all kinds of weird noises. I have also ridden a lot of other R142A's pre and post conversion and have observed similar things. It's almost like when the set is about to be sent for conversion, the crews at Westchester intentionally destroy it. I rode 7580 on the a couple months back and it was pretty bright. After seeing it test on the a few days ago, I'm scared to ride it again. The cars that come back from Kawasaki look absolutely horrible. I'm not at all surprised that R142A's on the preform significantly better, and I am definitely not surprised that conversions have a much higher breakdown rate than the newly built sets of R188's, considering how bad they are when they return. Corona has cleaned up some of the R188 conversions considerably well, but it is definitely going to be a lot of work to get them in acceptable shape. Westchester definitely did a terrible job maintaining those cars. Link for 7580 testing, you can see how disgusting the set is: I was also able to identify that it was testing downstairs on the platform because I heard 7578 hissing from ALL the way up on the 7th Avenue platform....

Yes that was the same set I saw entering the barn last week. And I don't mind it, although I wish they used different colors for the number and I also wish they made one big LED board so that the 7 could be bigger instead of wasting the space on individual strips for the number, circle and diamond.

It's in my video... 7506-7928-7510 which has not seen service for a couple of weeks now and has been in the barn since. Makes sense since 7571-7935-7580 is in Corona testing. 7561-7934-7570 should be in service soon.