Quoting zippyjet (Reply 14):
3. "Red Birds" were a series of NYC Subway cars during the 60's through 80's
Quoting zippyjet (Reply 17):
Mir: I thought they were recently retired and many of them are now manmade barrier reefs out in the Atlantic off the Delmarva coast.
The first “Redbirds” the R-17’s go back to the late 1950’s, I remember riding them on the No. 6 Pelham line around 1956 or 57 as they started to replace the old Low Vees. The first of these redbirds had an openable circular window on the door between the cars, and there was not much viewing room if 2 or more people were looking out the front window of the train, later models had a larger rectangle window. They were not officially called redbirds at the time they were placed in service, but I remember talking to a motorman at the Pelham Bay station, the last stop of the No. 6 line about the new cars and he said he liked the new redbirds, which was their nickname.
As far as I know, the World Fair cars were never delivered in the redbird paint scheme, I remember them as being painted silver and blue. Later on the MTA went back to the redbird colors as the cars were overhauled
The earlier redbirds were all scrapped, but almost all the later redbirds were stripped of all mechanical parts, windows and doors were removed and they were dumped in the Atlantic Ocean to be used as artificial reefs. The main reason for the dumping instead of scrapping them was there was a lot of asbestos insulation between the inner and outer skins of the cars, the cost of removing the asbestos before scrapping was far more expensive than just dumping them because of all the newer environmental rules and regulations, and the Federal government approved the dumping of the intact car shells because the asbestos was not considered a pollutant.
One interesting fact is New Jersey after accepting the first batch declined more cars after someone complained that asbestos was still in the cars even after the Federal Government approved the ocean disposal, but other states took as many as they could get and then New Jersey later changed their minds and decided they would accept more car shells, but almost all of the remaining cars had already been pledged so New Jersey only got a small share of the discarded car shells. A total of 1,292 Redbirds have been sunk at sea off the coasts of Delaware, Georgia, New Jersey, South Carolina, and Virginia.
The use of old New York City subway cars as artificial reefs has been very successful and the MTA now will use dump all their subway cars as they are retired into the ocean.
Quoting jetstar,reply=35:
A total of 1,292 Redbirds have been sunk at sea off the coasts of Delaware, Georgia, New Jersey, South Carolina, and Virginia. |
And don;t forget my state of Maryland. As a matter of fact the first story on national news featured the "redbirds" being used off the coast of Ocean City, Md. Of course O.C. is part of whats called Delmarva. On the Atlantic coast, the three state borders are next to each other. As a matter of fact Ocean City, Md. north terminus border is the
MD.
DEL state line.
And regarding "Articulated Busses," AKA Accordian busses there are some on the streets of Baltimore with our MTA. Metrobus in DC has some in service.
