R29 (New York City Subway Car)
The R29 was a New York City Subway car built in 1962 by the St. Louis Car Company for the IRT division (also known as the A Division). They have very similar appearances to the R26 and 28 cars with the exceptions that they were built by a different company and permanently paired with link bars, instead of couplers. These were also the first subway cars to feature a bright red paint scheme. Four cars (8686, 8687, 8804 and 8805) were tested with G70 trucks. Use of these trucks was discontinued in 1970.
The first R29 train debuted on the 7 service on April 28, 1962. On May 1, it was transferred to the 1 service.
After being rebuilt by Morrison Knudsen in Hornell, New York as "Redbirds" in 1985-87, they were split into two groups with different propulsion equipment. The Westinghouse cars #'s 8570-8687 ran on the 6 train alongside the R36 Main Line and some Westinghouse R36 World's Fair cars while the General Electric cars #'s 8688-8805 ran the 2 and 5 trains with the R26 and R28 cars.
By 1982 all cars in this series have received air conditioning as part of a retrofitting program.
With the arrival of the R142s and R142As, retirement of the R29 fleet began in the summer of 2001. The last train of R29s made its final trip on the 5 train on October 24, 2002.
After retirement, the entire fleet except for pair 8678-8679, which is used for work service and stored at the Unionport Yard, was stripped of all parts and sunk into the Atlantic Ocean to create artificial reefs.
Read more about R29 (New York City Subway Car): Route Assignment History, See Also
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