R12 (New York City Subway car)

R12 (New York City Subway car)
250 px R12 car 5760 on display at the New York Transit Museum
Interior of an R12 car
In service	1948-1981
Manufacturer	American Car and Foundry Company
Built at	Berwick, Pennsylvania, USA
Constructed	1948
Number built	100
Number preserved	2
Number scrapped	98
Fleet numbers	5703–5802
Capacity	44 (seated)
Operator(s)	New York City Subway
Specifications
Car body construction	LAHT Carbon Steel
Car length	51 ft (15.54 m)
Width	8 ft (2,438 mm)
Height	11 ft (3,353 mm)
Platform height	3.76 ft (1.15 m)
Doors	6
Maximum speed	55 mph (89 km/h)
Weight	73,100 lb (33,158 kg)
Traction system	General Electric 1240A3 or Westinghouse J1447C
Power output	100 hp (75 kW)
Braking system(s)	WABCO E2 "SMEE" Braking System, A.S.F. simplex unit cylinder clasp (tread) brake
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)

The R12 was a New York City Subway car built in 1948 by the American Car and Foundry Company. The R12 was the first post-war city-owned rolling stock for the IRT division. These cars were very similar to the R10s, except that the R12 was smaller due to A Division specifications. In addition, while the R10s had air-operated door engines (and were the last cars ordered as such), the R12s had electric door engines. Delivery began in June 1948 and the R12s began service on the IRT Flushing Line (7 <7> services) route in Queens and Manhattan on July 13, 1948, with all 100 cars delivered by October 1948. The R12s and R14/R15s ran there until 1964 with the delivery of the blue R36 World's Fair cars. The R12 cars were then transferred to operate on other IRT division routes originating in Manhattan, the Bronx, or Brooklyn throughout their service lives. One particular assignment included all fifty of the GE cars (5753-5802) being heavily modified to ease up on the shaking of the old elevated structure, by killing the dynamic brakes and cutting out the third (parallel) notch on their controllers, and sent to the (8) Third Avenue elevated line in the Bronx during August 1969 and ran there until that route's closing on April 29, 1973. In addition, four Westinghouse R12 cars (5703-5706) were slightly modified for use on the Bowling Green – South Ferry Shuttle, and were so-equipped so that the center door of each car could be opened at South Ferry, while keeping the others closed. These cars were used until the shuttle was discontinued on February 12, 1977, and were unmodified and reassigned to the 3 train shortly afterwards.

The R12 had a few paint schemes: originally two-tone gray with orange stripes, then a solid bright red, and finally, in the MTA's silver with blue stripe scheme.

Retirement and Preservation

The last R12 was removed from service in September 1981 and the fleet became work and other non-revenue cars afterward. The majority of the remainder of the fleet has been scrapped, although some R12 cars have been set aside for preservation over the years. These include:

• Car 5760, restored to its original paint scheme and has been part of the New York Transit Museum collection since July 1976.
• Car 5782, at the 207th Street Yard in the MTA blue/silver livery paint scheme.

See also

• R14 (New York City Subway car) - a very similar model also built by American Car & Foundry Company.

Further reading

• Sansone, Gene. Evolution of New York City subways: An illustrated history of New York City's transit cars, 1867-1997. New York Transit Museum Press, New York, 1997 ISBN 978-0-9637492-8-4