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If You Could Make A New York City Subway Car Your Home.......


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This is just for fun: If you could purchase a New York City subway car (past or present) and make it your home, which subway car model would you pick and how would you design the inside (kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, maybe a living room)?

 

You would have to be a major foamer to do that....

 

But if I had too I guess a R68 cause it's 75ft which means more room and they are fat.

But I don't see putting all my stuff into 75ft of train!

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Well, I agree a subway car is, kind of, narrow, but, in a way, it's actually similiar to a single wide mobile home (one I lived in was twelve feet wide by sixty feet long and made o corugated metal), which is what I'm thinking of here.

 

You would have to be a major foamer to do that....

 

But if I had too I guess a R68 cause it's 75ft which means more room and they are fat.

But I don't see putting all my stuff into 75ft of train!

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That's insane^

 

I'd have to go with either a Redbird, R68, or R110. I would include the R32 in that list, but I don't want my A/C dying in the middle of summer.

 

The R32 HVAC is too noisy anyways. That 110 was a good one (110B of course) That might be something to think about down the road for the R68's (gutting them and setting them up as small homes), selling them and putting them upstate or something for low income housing.

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The R32 HVAC is too noisy anyways. That 110 was a good one (110B of course) That might be something to think about down the road for the R68's (gutting them and setting them up as small homes), selling them and putting them upstate or something for low income housing.

 

The R68 is the new trailer park house!

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A long time ago I read this book in which a person converted a trolley car into their house. Sure why not it can happen. If you can change a trolley car into a house, or a museum, or a restaurant I don't see why it's so hard with an old subway car.

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Why bother to purchase one?

Every night hundreds of folks make subway cars their home for the price of a Metrocard, or ability to jump a turnstile....:P

 

Seriously, though...I remember as a youth spending the night in an old subway or el car that were given to some Scout camp and converted to camp cabins.

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Why bother to purchase one?

Every night hundreds of folks make subway cars their home for the price of a Metrocard, or ability to jump a turnstile....:P

 

Seriously, though...I remember as a youth spending the night in an old subway or el car that were given to some Scout camp and converted to camp cabins.

 

Well, it would be YOURS.

 

And mine

R142A Cab Car

Couch at no Cab End

Entire 1 section of seats ripped out for bed

One side of 2 section section ripped out for TV and Couch.

 

Like

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Why bother to purchase one?

Every night hundreds of folks make subway cars their home for the price of a Metrocard, or ability to jump a turnstile....B)

 

Seriously, though...I remember as a youth spending the night in an old subway or el car that were given to some Scout camp and converted to camp cabins.

 

That must have been fun... As for subway cars, I'm not really sure. If I wanted a full-time home from it I'd probably use an R44 or R68 (when it becomes available) body shell and strip it completely. I'd wind up needing to do a complete rework of the interior and probably mods for the frame; a house only needs one or two doors, not eight, and I'd need the space in the car to handle water tanks, sewer holding tanks, hot water tanks, etc. It would probably also need heavy mods to the chassis to handle a diesel engine because third rail only exists on a very small part of the national rail network and I don't think they'd let me roam around the B division as I chose... :P It sounds like one hell of a project, but I think you'd be better off working from one of these:

 

Budd_RDC.png

 

(Image is NOT mine; obtained from the Wikimedia commons)

 

As far as the actual design would go, I'd rip out the back wall of the cab and create a small lounge up front leading to the first pair of doors. The actual living area would come out of the space starting where the first line of doors used to be and going back to the second line of doors with overhead cabinetry, an island counter, and an inline kitchen setup taking up about ten feet of wallspace and the other eight for a couch on one side and a stereo, TV, and laptop desk on the other. The rest of the space would be split into two 78" by 15' bedrooms on one side with a hallway on the other.

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That must have been fun... As for subway cars, I'm not really sure. If I wanted a full-time home from it I'd probably use an R44 or R68 (when it becomes available) body shell and strip it completely. I'd wind up needing to do a complete rework of the interior and probably mods for the frame; a house only needs one or two doors, not eight, and I'd need the space in the car to handle water tanks, sewer holding tanks, hot water tanks, etc. It would probably also need heavy mods to the chassis to handle a diesel engine because third rail only exists on a very small part of the national rail network and I don't think they'd let me roam around the B division as I chose... :P It sounds like one hell of a project, but I think you'd be better off working from one of these:

 

Budd_RDC.png

 

(Image is NOT mine; obtained from the Wikimedia commons)

 

As far as the actual design would go, I'd rip out the back wall of the cab and create a small lounge up front leading to the first pair of doors. The actual living area would come out of the space starting where the first line of doors used to be and going back to the second line of doors with overhead cabinetry, an island counter, and an inline kitchen setup taking up about ten feet of wallspace and the other eight for a couch on one side and a stereo, TV, and laptop desk on the other. The rest of the space would be split into two 78" by 15' bedrooms on one side with a hallway on the other.

 

That Budd Rail Diesel Car would be great if you could just operate it wherever you wanted to, but railroads would never allow that. The closest you could come would be to own a private rail car and pay Amtrak and sometimes freight railroads to haul it around for you.

See http://www.aaprco.com/ for details....

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R142A :

Full-Width Cab - Shower

No Cab End - Bed

Left side of train :

 


  • T.V.

 

 

  • Dinner table

 

 

  • Kitchen

 

 

  • Bathroom

 

 

 

Right side of train :

 


  • Couch

 

 

  • Computer

 

 

  • Special Comfortable Chair

 

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I would not make a subway car my home. Ever. But if I had to choose, I'd say an R68. There would need to be a bathroom though, and that's why I would prefer to live in an Amtrak coach. B) I could turn one into a restaurant, though...

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You would have to be a major foamer to do that....

 

But if I had too I guess a R68 cause it's 75ft which means more room and they are fat.

But I don't see putting all my stuff into 75ft of train!

 

Well, think of it like a trialer home. I'm sure some people can fit some of their stuff in it. The cabs being the bathroom/'kitchen'. That said, it's better to just move in to an actual house.

Lets just think for two seconds, what would be the first thought that would cross the mind of a normal person think if you told them "I live in a subway car."

 

I'll tell you.

 

It's not "Oh he must love trains" or "oh, he must be really cool".

 

It's "Oh my God, he must be a homeless person."

 

Lmao! Very true!

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