Tech And Transit

7461-7924-7470 caught me completely by surprise today at 5th Avenue in service. The gap between 7923 and 7924 was tremendously short considering the time 7919, 7920, 7921 and 7922 took to enter service. Although I haven't seen 7923 in service yet.

I'm just getting lucky with these test trains lol. Here's 7923 at Grand Central from earlier today.

I saw it today on the 7 Not In Service. I beleive it was coupled to 2036, I forgot the single car's #. It made a few NIS rounds until returning to Corona later that day.

It's simple, they take one set out of service, install CBTC components in it and test them. This process will continue until 2017 when CBTC goes online.

Yep, this set has been making progress quick. Each time I've seen it it seems to have had more systems or software added to it. It's a very good sign.

Yes it's a factory set that was taken out for testing. It originally entered service in May 2014 for about a month before it was taken out. The Thales and MTA employees I talked to today said this set won't be in service until 2017, presumably when CBTC goes online.

CBTC testing again. R188 set 7860-7870 at Mets - Willets Point.

Actually, the conversion process has slowed down quite a bit. It seems like they're putting sets into service about every month. 7921 went into service on September 9th and now 7922 went into service yesterday on October 8th. I think the last conversion should enter service around May/June of 2016.

Yeah, saw and rode 7922 today. Also saw 7460, 7923 and all the others of that set in the yard.

7899 has been in service for awhile now. And yeah the R188s will not be going to the , it makes absolutely no sense to take an 11 car CBTC ready train made for the , break it up and put it into a different arrangement just to have it run on a non CBTC line.

Nope, still in the yard with testing posters in the windows.

But 7209 shown in the video was a B car, so it's unlikely that it was renumbered to 7211. I did hear somewhere though that some car was numbered to 7211 from something else. Perhaps 7209 was renumbered to 7212? EDIT: The video description says the car was seen at Kawasaki for a year and never seen again. Maybe it wasn't renumbered, it was just never used probably.

Rode 7920 today too lol. It's hard to beleive we're up to 30 sets. I'll hopefully get my pics up soon. I'll also post a video to youtube which I will link here later.

I saw 7866-7870 paired with 7860-7865 NIS again today. It was heading from Hudson Yards and I caught it just as it came back to Times Square. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cidfWSj9cc

I sure hope it returns to service soon, it will be nice to see a shiny new factory set. I think 7211-7899-7220 have CBTC and 7221-7900-7230 now have CBTC after being gone for so long. I think they might be starting to give sets CBTC. And for this NTT wrapping discussion, NTT interiors have been wrapped before. The R142 already mentioned and also the R143 YouTube ad wraps both were wrapped on the exterior and interior.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qT1DIGYDTY Saw 7860-7870 NIS yesterday at 5th Avenue. This set has CBTC installed so I think it was probably either CBTC testing or they were seeing how the train handled with the CBTC components inside. Either way, this set has been OOS for what seems like forever. BTW, 7221-7900-7230 returned to service after months being OOS. I heard it had returned to Kawasaki to get CBTC installed but I also heard it was in Corona's shop for months. Not sure what to beleive though.

No it's just because 7919 entered service yesterday, or maybe the day before idk, and it already has graffiti. I know all cars can have graffiti, it's bound to happen to any of them, it's New York but I was kind of suprised someone got to it that fast.

7411-7919-7420 was in service today. And 7919 already has graffiti inside at the number one end smh.

Was on the 7 today and saw something interesting, 7216 is no longer coupled with 7305. 7216 is now coupled back with 7215 and 7305 is now coupled back with 7306. 7266 and 7325 have been coupled. This makes me think that either Corona wants to keep the sets in seqential order when possible or there is some other reason they need to be together (which I can't think of).

7401-7918-7410 is in service. I rode it yesterday and then again today.

The lone 5 and 6 car set in Corona is 7866-7870 and 7860-7865, which might have been paired already, I haven't been there in awhile. 7866-7870 is CBTC testing, not sure about 7860-7865. There have been some sets that have been decoupled in the past (I beleive it was 7331-7335 which was decoupled from 7336-7340) but they recoupled the set back together. But knowing the MTA, they will start mismatching the sets soon, unfortunately.

I caught 7391-7400 with 7917 in service today. Rode it only a little from Flushing to 90th Street. At Flushing about an hour later, 7399 had a door problem before it left. I think the problem was resolved though.

I found 7381-7916-7390 in service today and 7916's right side doors would not open at all. Either an employee forgot to unlock them or they just don't work. At Vernon, Hunters Point and Court Square, the doors didn't open and passengers had to cross to 7390 or 7389 to exit. I alerted the conductor at Queensboro Plaza. Not sure what happened to the train because I didn't stay on Flushing long after that.

Video of 7866-7870 testing:

No, 7866-7870 (alone) was CBTC testing at Flushing. 7860-7865 (the set paired with 7866-7870, 7871-7876 is paired with 7855-7859) was in the yard. And 7366-7370 was coupled to 7361-7365 in the yard.