"Lo-V' cars

[jonnhrr]

I often see mention of the "LO-V" (low voltage) cars.

What is the voltage being referenced? I assume the cars ran on the same 625V traction current as all other subways cars.

Is there an R number that corresponds to the Lo-V's or did they run before R numbers came into general use?

Jon

[Kamen Rider]

Low Voltage refered to the amount of power feed through the controls. The older "High V" cars feed the full third rail power. the employees were worried they would get shocked, so the IRT's next order had it's controls run off a 32-40 volt rechargable battery.

R numbers are only on orders placed by the city. with the sole exception of a test train on the Sea Beach of R1s before the IND opened, R cars didn't run on the IRT or BMT lines untill after 1940.

[bellstbarn]

Writing from memory that could be faulty, what was interesting during the 1940's on the Interborough's Broadway-Seventh Avenue line (Van Cortlandt Park to New Lots) is that low-v's were newer, different. They generally belonged to other routes. We did not then call the older equipment high-v's. Low-v's were the designation for motor cars numbered in the 4000's and 5000's. nycsubway.org has a good list of the numbers which belonged to each group. As pointed out at that site, the low v's could not be mixed with other equipment, so that presumably is why one could sense which Interborough line one was riding on just by some of the interior details. For us, post-1915 equipment was somewhere else on the system. Yes, the trailers on the west side were hi-v's 4223-4514, but since they did had neither motors nor controls, they were just one element of the train consist. As I recall, a ten car train would have M-T-M on the south end, followed by M-T-M-T?-M-T-M, so that the lead three cars could be cut off on Sundays. Errors of memory are possible.
Joe