R68s on the B line

[Love Train]

I looked at the nycsubway.org's newest images section and saw many photos of R68 B trains.

Now I thought the B was mostly R40(M)/R42, with a rare R68A set. But I do not recall R68s on the line. I thought all R68s in Concourse Yard were used by the D line.

Has this been going on for a while? I was just away for seven weeks over the summer and do not know of anything transit-related that happened during that time.

[AJ]

Actually, they put R68/R68A Subway Cars there if a R40S/M or R42 breaks down.

[Head-end View]

I took a very interesting B-Line (Brighton Express) round trip from Manhattan to Coney Island this week. Rode an R-40M and an R-40/Slant. All the B trains I saw were those 2 types. And all the Q trains (Brighton Locals) were R-68/68A types.

Checked out the new Stillwell Ave. terminal for the first time. Very nice rebuilding job ! I wanted to take the F-train back to Manhattan thru the Smith-9th St. complex if I could have rode an R-32/38 type train. But after waiting thru 6 F-trains that were all R-44/46 types, I gave up. I would have settled for an N-line (Sea Beach) ride too, but the one old train I saw closed its doors just before I got to the platform. Oh well.......it was an interesting hour spent at Stillwell Ave. So I just took the B-line (R-40) back to Manhattan.

Funny, I never thought much of the Brighton Line years ago when I rode it, but this time I found it pretty interesting, especially all the signals in the DeKalb Ave. complex as well as the Manhattan Bridge segment. Interesting where the north tracks turn right into the Chrystie St. tunnel; you can still see the original straight alignment to the Canal St tunnel. It helped that there were no track work slowdowns or detours so the trains maintained good speeds for the whole ride. Then too, the R-40 slant was always my favorite since my first ride on a brand new one in 1968.

I was also lucky enough to catch LIRR M-3 trains in both directions that day. Overall, a really good day of riding, best I've had in along time.

[Robert Paniagua]

Checked out the new Stillwell Ave. terminal for the first time. Very nice rebuilding job ! I wanted to take the F-train back to Manhattan thru the Smith-9th St. complex if I could have rode an R-32/38 type train. But after waiting thru 6 F-trains that were all R-44/46 types, I gave up. I would have settled for an N-line (Sea Beach) ride too, but the one old train I saw closed its doors just before I got to the platform. Oh well.......it was an interesting hour spent at Stillwell Ave. So I just took the B-line (R-40) back to Manhattan.

Well, I saw the B had all corner cab trains, so when the weather here in New York improves tomorrow, I'll head out to CI territory and ride those slants and take pictures of the outside (got some interior shots a little while back) The Q, however, is all full cab cars, and definitely the D, it's either an R68/R68A, not even an R46 or R38. However, when I rode downthere yesterday, I saw an R32 F train pull up so I got out of the R46 consist I was in immediately and jumped on board the latter run which featured the R32 and I took pictures out the head car going Northbound, so I'll try to get those pics in to you guys. FYI I got R32 3769.

Today's ride, however, was no good with the raw, rainy and windy weather out in the Rockaways A train so it was a no-photo day with the high winds and that, but it should be nicer tomorrow and I'll get some shots of the Coney Island bound routes (I pulled off some pics yeaterday of the D and aforementioned F routes) mainly the Q which I havent done yet and probably the N.

And yeah, I saw th CI terminal, it's alot better there than it was back in the old days, now I'll have to find a restaurant near there!

[Head-end View]

Wow Rob; wrong day for a ride on the A-train to Rockaway. The remnants of the hurricane were a little worse than we expected. You're lucky the Rockaway line across the bay wasn't flooded out; that happened years ago at least once that I know of. Did you get lunch at the Sunset diner? At least today was a good day for riding, so your trip isn't a total waste.

I made an error in my above post. I should have said "Q" for the Brighton local; the "D" is the West End. Silly me; the Brighton local's been the "Q" for an eternity. I've gone back and corrected that. Lucky you got an R-32 for the "F" ride. I'll try again on my next trip; haven't had any luck with those "F" trains.

[Robert Paniagua]

Wow Rob; wrong day for a ride on the A-train to Rockaway. The remnants of the hurricane were a little worse than we expected. You're lucky the Rockaway line across the bay wasn't flooded out; that happened years ago at least once that I know of. Did you get lunch at the Sunset diner? At least today was a good day for riding, so your trip isn't a total waste.

I made an error in my above post. I should have said "Q" for the Brighton local; the "D" is the West End. Silly me; the Brighton local's been the "Q" for an eternity. I've gone back and corrected that. Lucky you got an R-32 for the "F" ride. I'll try again on my next trip; haven't had any luck with those "F" trains.

Yeah I picked the wrong day to ride the A line, used poor judgeme nt in my part!

Yes, Ernie was pretty bad with those winds also, they were all over the place, but A train service was not disrupted. As for the diner where IO usually go for meal break, it ain't there no more, they vacated back on 2/12/06, so I went up the road to a Japanese restaurant.

And I rode the F today and yep, I caught another R32, and pulled my camera out and took better southbound pictures including the Smith/9th St flyover, and saw the EL a lot better and there were trains being laid-up at the center track on the F for the weekend.

Now, the Q which I rode today was all R68s but I rode in the back car. There was no B servioce, however I took an N train earlier instead and got a corner cab car and was able to take a few pics while in the Manhattan Bridge. I saw some B trains laid-up in the inner Q Brighton tracks also, like the F, but it was a good ride also, I'll have to publish those pics so that I can show you and maybe submit some to nycsubway.org.

Also, the B trains I saw parked were R40Straight ends to R42s including some slant R40s and R68's as well.The Q only uses R68, like it's brother D Line. Only the N and F sport better railfanning window cars.

FYI while at Rockaway Park yesterday and at Hoyt/Schemehorn today, I saw a pair of brand-spanking new R160s being tested and I said to myself while on R32 3568 today, "A year from now, they will be on the road for all of them and this car (3268/69) will go to the scrapper's blowtorch or to Seashore". So that was that, and catch those corner cab cars soon since the R160 may infest the Coney Island Extensions.

[devbeep2]

I caught THREE R32's on the F line today. I couldn't believe it.. I usually have to wait for many trains to go by before I catch one.

[Robert Paniagua]

Wow, three historical trainsets straight? That's good news for us. I caught mine from an R68 D train I saw it entering the station from my D train and iommediately jumped on the R32 F line at the next stop.