The R36 (or R36 ML) was a class of New York City Subway cars built in 1964 by the St. Louis Car Company, St. Louis, Missouri for the IRT division (also known as the A Division). These cars are referred as R36 ML (or Main Line) to distinguish them from the R36 World's Fair cars which were built for service on the IRT Flushing Line (7 <7> trains).
The R36 ML was a 34-car follow-up order to the 500-car R33 model. Both R33 ML and R36 ML were similar with drop-sash side windows differentiating them from the large picture windows of the World's Fair cars. These cars ran for many years on the IRT main lines (Broadway – Seventh Avenue and Lexington Avenue). Prior to overhaul in 1984/5, they mainly ran on the 1 and 3 trains. Upon returning from overhaul the R36s ran on the 7 from 1984 to 1988, and transferred to the 6 from 1988 to 2001, and again retransferred back to the 7 when they began to be replaced by the R142A cars. Some also provided occasional service on the 4 and 7 trains.
By 1982 all cars in this series have received air conditioning as part of a retrofitting program.
In 1998, the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) announced that it would begin phasing out the Redbird cars — R26 / 28 / 29 / 33 / 36 with the R142 and R142A cars. From 2001 to 2003, Redbird cars were reefed, scrapped, sold, put into work service, or stored out service.
All but one pair of R36 MLs were scrapped. With the arrival of the R142As on the 6 train, the R36 MLs were transferred over to the 7 train. The last pair, numbers 9542-9543, ran on the 7 until August, 2003. They went to the New York Transit Museum in 2004.
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—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
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—Gilbert Adair, British author, critic. “Cleaning and Cleansing,” Myths and Memories (1986)