With their stainless steel exteriors
that resemble the side of a soup can and an overall old-timey vibe to them, the R-32 subway cars began their last rides this month. They are some of the oldest subway cars still running, not just in New York City but in the world. Rail fans came out in full force to say their goodbyes, many of them calling them the most reliable train cars the subway system had ever seen.
Some people think they should just stay forever as they are better built than what's out there today. They are almost 60 years old and still in good shape. They are icons of the city.
The subway cars earned their nickname as they have "washboard-like ridges on the exteriors of the cars." The last run of the cars has been a long time coming, as their original retirement announcement was actually a decade ago.
Speaking of the throwback of it all, Regina Asborno, the deputy director of the New York Transit Museum said that the museum is adding some special touches to the train cars for the final rides. There will be retirement branding, new nostalgic touches that will be added to the train each week leading up to the final run on January 9th.
That final run will include a map, which is a 1964 World's Fair Map and Station Guide, a variant of the map that would have been found in the R-32s when they went into revenue service.
A Retired MTA worker took a final ride on one of these trains and had said "I wish the entire fleet was still in regular service, that's my opinion. I'm going to miss these cars... to me, this is a piece of history."
There will be three more days of final runs, on Sunday, December 26th, January 2nd, and January 9th. You can find more information on those runs here.