SIRW "Standard" cars?

[jeffmorris]

Does anyone remember the colors of the SIRW "Standard" cars made in 1925 before they were painted black or dark brown? I thought that nycsubway.org website has webpages on SIR but I can't find them. I saw pictures of the cars running on some BMT routes in 1950s after NYCTA bought some cars from SIRW after SIRW abandoned two of three routes and they were red with white window band.

[Vistausss]

You mean this page: http://www.nycsubway.org/lines/sirt.html

[jeffmorris]

Thanks for the link. I don't know why I can't find link to SIRW in "Around New York" webpage. Because SIRW was once owned by Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and their passenger cars were usually blue with white window band, I thought that the SIRW cars were blue with white window band but they were all blue.

[Paul Uhland]

jeffmorris...When I rode in the late-'40s to mid-'50s, their exteriors were Pullman Green with RR Roman gold lettering, were sun-faded but never black or brown. Sometime after we moved off SI in '57, then-owner B&O re-painted the cars to match that railroad's regular passenger equipment--blue sides, light roofs and ends, gold anticlimbers, end gates. Looked classy.

Also, anticipating increased service, NYCTA bought, converted 30 surplus Standards to run on the Brooklyn BMT in the '50s when two SIRT lines folded, painted them maroon with white window stripe, black roofs. But service shrank, they were not BMT-compatible, were scrapped in '62.

The 40-year-old R44s to me are still "new", even though they're now ratty, flat wheel noise was common on my '03, '05 rides, are getting rebuilt instead of replaced.