# R38 (New York City Subway car)

The R38 was a New York City Subway car model built by the St. Louis Car Company from 1966 to 1967 for the IND/BMT B Division. Two hundred were built in married pairs. In addition, the R38s were built to supply extra trains for service changes resulting from the 1967 opening of the Chrystie Street Connection. Moreover, the R38 was the first subway car fleet to have air conditioning installed.
The first R38s entered service on August 23, 1966. In 1987–1988, all R38s were rebuilt by General Electric. The R160 order replaced the entire fleet of R38s, the last of which ran on March 18, 2009. After retirement, all cars but one pair, which is preserved by the New York Transit Museum, were stripped and sunken as artificial reefs.

## Description

The R38s were numbered 3950–4149. The cars were arranged in "married pairs" of two cars semi-permanently coupled together by a drawbar. Even-numbered cars were known as "B" cars, while odd-numbered cars were known as "A" cars.
The R38 was the second subway car order to be built with stainless steel exteriors, the first being the R32 order in 1964. The cars were built with aluminium roofs, vandal-proof fiberglass seats, and with indirect fluorescent lighting, which also provided illumination of the advertisement cards as well, a similar setup to the last 150 R32 cars delivered in 1965 numbered 3800–3949. Due to the similarities between both fleets, R38s often operated in mixed-consists with R32s.
The R38 was the first successful subway car fleet to have air conditioning installed after earlier prototypes failed on older subway cars. The last ten cars delivered (4140–4149) came factory equipped with Stone-Safety 10-ton split system air conditioning system featuring the compressor/condenser units mounted under the cars, while the evaporator units were installed on the top interior ends of the car in 1967. The first six air conditioned cars came into service on the F train on July 19, 1967. The six-week experiment was a success after past failures, and air conditioning would soon, but not immediately, become standard equipment on new rolling stock built for the system, since the first 200 R40 cars were built without air conditioning. The air conditioned cars cost $40,000 more than the non-air conditioned cars. From this point on, the New York City Transit Authority began adopting air conditioning as standard equipment on all new cars, and older model cars were retrofitted with AC units to make life much more bearable throughout the subway system. The Stone-Safety Air Conditioning system was adopted from their standard railroad and commuter coach air conditioning systems, and it proved very successful.

## History

In March 1965, the New York City Transit Authority, continuing its program of car replacement, ordered 200 additional cars for the B Division from the St. Louis Car Company. These cars were the first to replace cars for the IND since it started operation in 1932. They also supplied extra trains for the Chrystie Street Connection, which opened on November 27, 1967. St. Louis was chosen after the first three bids were deemed as too high, with the cost savings totalling $500,000.
The first two trains of R38s were placed in service at Queens Plaza after a brief introductory ceremony attended by Mayor John V. Lindsay, NYCTA Chairman Joseph O'Grady, and NYCTA Commissioners Joseph Gilhooly and Daniel T. Scannell on the E and F on August 23, 1966. Though there were controversies about diverting these cars from their original assignment for the D, it was decided to introduce the R38s on the IND Queens Boulevard Line, as the line was short of cars and the R1–9s assigned to Jamaica Yard were in a bad state of disrepair.

### Overhaul and mishaps

Cars 3990–3991 & 4000–4001 were involved in an incident on June 11, 1972, at the bumper blocks within the relay area east of the Jamaica–179 Street Terminal. These cars were stored in very heavily damaged condition at Coney Island Yard until they were scrapped in 1983.
In 1987–1988, the 196 remaining R38s were rebuilt by General Electric at its Buffalo, New York facility. During the rebuilding process, the R38s were fully equipped with air conditioning systems. Prior to rebuilding, the R38s featured mylar curtain route signs on their bulkheads displaying the service bullet and destination, similar to past B-Division R-type cars. After rebuilding, they received Luminator flipdot signs that displayed the service letter only, since the air conditioning evaporators mounted on the interior car ends made it rather difficult to change the front route and destination rollsigns. The distinctive "EXP" (express) and "LOCAL" marker lights were also removed. Like the R32s, the rollsigns on the sides of the cars were updated and retained.
The first ten R38s were sent to General Electric in early January 1987, along with ten R32s. The first rebuilt train of R38s (cars 3992/3, 4018/9, 4048/9, 4092/3, and 4132/3) entered service on the A on May 28, 1987. The last unrebuilt train of R38s made its last trip on the A before being sent out to be rebuilt on July 11, 1988. By December 28, 1988, all rebuilt R38s were in service.

### Retirement

The R160 order replaced the entire fleet of R38s. Cars 4088/9 was the first pair of R38s to be stripped and sunken as artificial reefs on March 5, 2008; they were retired for unknown reasons in the early 2000s and stored at the 207th Street Yard. The rest of the fleet was gradually phased out from October 31, 2008, until the last pair, cars 4098–4099, made its final trip on the C on March 18, 2009, in a mixed consist with three R32 pairs. After retirement, all cars except for 4028–4029 were stripped and sunken as artificial reefs.
Cars 4028–4029 are preserved for the New York Transit Museum. They were restored to operating status in 2013–2014 and have been operating on New York City Transit Museum-sponsored excursions since August 3, 2014, specifically on the Train of Many Metals (TOMM).

## In popular culture
### Movies

* The opening scene of a 1977 movie Saturday Night Fever shows a train of R38s on the B, prior to refurbishment.
* The scene on a subway train in a 1988 movie Coming to America was shot on an R38 on the E, also prior to refurbishment.
* The subway scene in a 1988 movie Crocodile Dundee II features an R38 train on the A, after refurbishment.
* The subway scene in a 1990 movie Ghost features an R38 train on the A, also after refurbishment.
* The subway scene in a 2002 movie Men in Black II, features an alien entering a tunnel. Once there, it attacks and devours most of a subway train (which is a combination of R32 and R38 cars) until Agent J destroys it. He is then seen walking out of the station, 81st Street – Museum of Natural History, on the C. This movie also depicts the R38s after refurbishment.

### Video games

* The trains in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV are based on the R38s.