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RIP R38s (1966-2009)


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rip the r38's

http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?24547 that is such a nice r38 pic

so is one going to the transit museum or another railfan museum?

its also sad there will only be one similar r16 shaped train on the subway once theve gone!

R38s 4028 and 4029 will be saved for the Transit Museum. They have already been taken out of service and repainted.

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this news truly grieves me, i was a huge fan of the R38's id actually wait for one to come when i rode the (A) line so i could ride between the cars down the Fulton express tracks as they'd minister to me with the 3rd rail sparks which lit up the tunnel and the sounds all trains make with the "Da-dun, da-dun" sound coming from the trucks below. as the train rocks back & forth guess i ought to take joy in their R 40 &42 cousins which remain as their day is soon coming too

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R38s 4028 and 4029 will be saved for the Transit Museum. They have already been taken out of service and repainted.

 

Sounds like awesome news...so hopefully R32 3352-53 and R42 4572-73 will get repainted as well? Or have they already been repainted and such?

 

There's still an R40 slant and an R40M left to add if im not mistaken...

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Sounds like awesome news...so hopefully R32 3352-53 and R42 4572-73 will get repainted as well? Or have they already been repainted and such?

 

There's still an R40 slant and an R40M left to add if im not mistaken...

R40 4192-3 will be preserved for the museum. I don't think 3352 has been repainted yet but it has been fixed up a little bit and sent to the museum. It's not official if an R42 pair has been saved yet.

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The R38s should really go after the R40-R42 are gone. Clearly, the R38s haven't been breaking down for quite some time. I wished they got more duct tape for the roofs instead. Their bodies are still in wonderful shape.

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R40 4192-3 will be preserved for the museum. I don't think 3352 has been repainted yet but it has been fixed up a little bit and sent to the museum. It's not official if an R42 pair has been saved yet.

 

But weren't 4192-93 reefed sometime ago?

Unless I might be mistaken?

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They are not all done, I rode one on the (A), I rode 4140/41 on friday, This week is their last week for sure.

 

Seen that very same set today while going to WTC for the PA5s, which was a very successful hunt!

 

There are R38s still in active service, just not as many as some may think...

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Guest Charles

According to Kris (R160B8713)'s datasheet, tehy're all gone. :cry: I was going to try to get one last ride in tomorrow! Why! :cry: Well, I'll miss them. No more of those distinctive subway car symbols and the distinctive font that survived.

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:(Man, I must have been lucky. I decided on Friday to take a trip on the R-38s home, knowing that this trip would be one of my last on them. As I headed to 168th, I saw sets of R-38s heading downtown. Mostly on the C, but at 42nd, I saw an A train with about 6 or 8 R-38s in it. My favorite cars were the R-38s; I'll miss them. On the trip, I made sure that I memorized everyt aspect of the R-38s... The dirty carbodies, the rusted roofs, the dimly lit interiors, the overall neglect, the sound (every car class has a specific sound to it, even the oldest ones), the speed, the orange (instead of red) door indicator lights, the font of the number plates, and the general appearance. Knowing how the MTA mostly works, it is simply not possible for them to retire about 15-20 R-38s in one or two days... I can prove that. As I was heading uptown on the 1 on Sunday, in 207th Street Yard I managed to get a good look of about 8-10 R-38s, 5 R-160s, 5 R-62s, 4 R1/9s, work cars, and 4028-4029 on a siding. They have not been repainted. The only thing they repainted are the front hoods of the roofs. I hope that they restore them to pre-rebuild condition. Not all R-38s have been scrapped though. From what I have seen, at least 50 of them are still around. I'm pretty sure that at least one set of them is running the C, perhaps until about wenesday, or next friday. I know that most people around here prefer R-32s, because of speed, performance, and cleanliness, but they are not as good as R-38s. First of all, R-32s have the 'stripes' all the way to the roof. That makes them look less aesthetically appealing. R-38s have the stripes only halfway up. R-38s have consolidated headlights, not individual ones like R-32s. R-38s have much bigger windows than R-32s as well. All this make the R-38s more attractive than the R-32s. I still love the R-32s, but to me, they are a bit rougher-looking than R-38s. Had R-38s been properly maintained by the MTA, then they would be a knock-out. Instead of retiring R-38s first, they should have retired all R-40Ms and a bit more R-32s. There are so many R-32s, and the R40Ms look the same as R42s, except that the R42s are a bit more modernized. The one thing that I didn't like about R-38s is that in their last years, they only showed up on the A and C, and once on the V. Imagine they had showed up on the B, E, or the J/M/Z? By the way, why are there about 20 r-38s at Concourse yard? I was walking by their wednesday, and saw all of them in plain sight.(A)(C)(H)(K)<R>

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Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Danger hiptop 3.4; U; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20050920)

 

The things I remember about the R38's the most are these things...

 

1. The style of the numbers (I think they were the last cars to have that style of numbers)

 

2. The old logo on the front of the trains (when was that logo used?)

 

3. The ridges going halfway up the body.

 

4. The rollsigns looked different than on the R32's (for example, the R38 rollsign to Far Rockaway said "Far Rockaway via JFK Airport" while the R32 rollsign said "Far Rockaway Mott Av"

 

 

Photos to come soon

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Actually, there is NO OFFICIAL WORD that ALL R38s are gone, yet. The active fleet is diminished greatly as more of them are being made OOS. However, that doesn't mean that the last of them is out of service. There may be still a few out there, mingling with the R32s.

 

If they are not officially retired now, they will be so later this month.

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