Final Notes
Though they were quickly replaced by more modern all-steel equipment in the subway, the Composites represented a solid first effort at car construction by the IRT. At the time they were introduced, they represented the most advanced electric railcar in America. Engineer George Gibbs was widely praised for his work in designing the cars, though for Gibbs it was bittersweet, having hoped the first IRT subway car design would be all-steel (he would get his chance to engineer one soon enough though). The Composites also are a historical reminder of the reality at the turn of the 20th century - that car builders were simply not willing to experiment with all-steel construction. Since Composites bore many similarities in their construction and style to the elevated cars that came before them, the elevated was ultimately determined to be the best place for the cars once it had been decided to use a fleet of all-steel cars in the subway. Sadly, when their service life came to an end in 1950, none were saved, so little remains outside of the history books to remind us of the time when wooden IRT subway trains ran in New York's tunnels.
Read more about this topic: Composite (New York City Subway Car)
Famous quotes containing the words final and/or notes:
“There is no country in which so absolute a homage is paid to wealth. In America there is a touch of shame when a man exhibits the evidences of large property, as if after all it needed apology. But the Englishman has pure pride in his wealth, and esteems it a final certificate. A coarse logic rules throughout all English souls: if you have merit, can you not show it by your good clothes and coach and horses?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The germ of violence is laid bare in the child abuser by the sheer accident of his individual experience ... in a word, to a greater degree than we like to admit, we are all potential child abusers.”
—F. Gonzalez-Crussi, Mexican professor of pathology, author. “Reflections on Child Abuse,” Notes of an Anatomist (1985)