goodbye r32

It's been nearly six decades since the R32 subway car first entered service -- they were running in the system before I was born*. And today is their last day. I believe they've already been taken out of regular service, but the TA is running a few special trains so that railfans and sentimentalists can get ride them one last time. The R32 is my favorite of the cars in active service -- it has been since they took the R33s and R36s (then running on the 7 train) out. As of tonight I won't have a favorite.

The R32 dates back to when subway cars had style and beauty. In my mind that ended with the R42s. Those from the R44 on seem like characterless plastic shells -- cars to be ridden but not enjoyed. I remember once when I was in school, going home on an F train. At that point all the Fs were R46s. At Union Turnpike an E train of R32s pulled in. It surprised me because my Es and Fs had been exclusively R46s. But I got off the F just as the doors closed and ran across the platform to get the E. It would be a longer ride -- at that time the E and F both went to 179th Street in Jamaica, but the F was an express and the E was local. I stood on that train amazed. It seems odd now, but I remember the odd sensation marveling over it. "I'm on a E train, and it's R32s!" Most people probably can't understand it. I hope that some railfans can. It turned out that the TA was just starting to switch things up. R32s were replacing The R46s on the E and F. I have no idea where the R46s were going. I also have no idea why the TA decides to move car types around, but that's another matter. Within a month all the Es and Fs were R32s.

I will always associate the R32s with a few of the models that came later -- the R38s, R40s and R42s -- as representing a specific generation of designs. I don't know of any real reason to associate those few models. Maybe it's aesthetics. The R32s had stainless steel exteriors, while the predecessors didn't. That feature was carried over to the 38s, 40s and 42s. The R44s and R46s were very much a departure designwise, so I think of them -- whether rightly or wrongly -- as representing a new generation. And I didn't like the new generation. They seemed all plasticy and fake. And the motorman's cab spans the full width so it's not as easy or fun to look out the front window. I will acknowledge that it's probably more comfortable for the motorman and conductor.

But of its generation, I like the R32s the best. The R40, with its sleek slant end, had a certain unique style --even if they had to change that for safety reasons. And I liked the windows in the doors at the ends of the slant-40s. They went down low enough that even a young short railfan could experience the rush of standing at the front window as the train barreled along. But those seats! The R40s and R42s had the most uncomfortable seats in the system. The back was straight and angles badly, with the top being low enough to make it even worse. I never wanted a seat on those cars. The R38 was fine -- I have nothing bad to say about it. But I just never warmed up to it the way I did the R32. That may be because I didn't ride them as much. There were fewer in the system. That said, the corrugated exterior of the R32, with its tighter crinkles that go all the way up, was just more attractive than the wider crinkles that went only halfway up the side of the R38.

For a lot of my life the F train (and for a while the E too) was my home line. The R46 is the subway car that I most associate with the F. of course, it wasn't always R46s. My earliest subway memories -- going to elementary school -- include cars in the R1-9 series, and of course I remember R32s and others. Now they us cars that are post-R46 -- cars whose model numbers I don't really know

I thought about heading to Brooklyn to take one of those final rides. At another point in my life I definitely would have. But none of my kids is interested, though Ethan said he would go if I really wanted him to. It's not something Blair really wants to do, but she said she's go and have a good time if I wanted to. Still, I'll skip it. I suspect it will be crowded, and I won't get a spot by the front of back window. So sometime late today I'll think about the R32. In my mind I'll raise a toast to a great subway car and a bygone era.