R33S (New York City Subway car)
The R33S (also known as R33 World's Fair or R33WF) was a New York City Subway car that was built by St. Louis Car Company in 1963 for the IRT A Division. They were purchased for service on the IRT Flushing Line (7 and <7> trains), which was the closest line to the 1964 New York World's Fair. A total of 40 cars were built, arranged as single cars. While in regular service, each R33S was coupled to five two-car consists of R36 cars to make 11-car trains  for the 7 and <7> routes. The R33S fleet entered service on September 26, 1963, and was originally painted in a light blue turquoise "Bluebird" scheme. The fleet was overhauled in the mid-1980s, during which the cars were painted red, leading to the nickname "Redbirds". The R33S fleet was replaced in the early 2000s with the delivery of the R142 and R142A cars, with the last train of R33S and R36s running on November 3, 2003. After being retired, some R33S cars were preserved, but most were kept for work service; many of the work cars were scrapped  in the 2010s. Description. The R33S cars were numbered 9306–9345. The cars were very similar to the R33 cars, save for differently shaped side windows (three-piece curved windows on the R33S cars as opposed to three-sectioned rectangular windows on the R33 cars), and the fact that the R33S cars were single cars with a cab at both ends. The cars were built as single cars to make 11-car trains with the R36 cars for the 7, which were built as married pairs. Although the R33S cars were later referred to as Redbirds, the cars were originally painted  in a light turquoise blue and white upon delivery. This "Bluebird" paint color scheme was used until the mid-1970s when they were painted in the silver/blue MTA livery. Then, they were painted a full white (roof, bonnets, sides were all painted white) from 1981 to 1982 to combat graffiti; since the white paint was a Teflon-based paint, the graffiti did not stick to it very well. The look was abandoned for the famous Redbird style. The Redbirds were painted between 1984 and 1989 to a deep maroon red body, black front bonnets and anti-climbers, and a silver  roof. History. The first R33S cars were placed in service on the train on September 26, 1963. The cars were solely assigned to the (IRT Flushing Line) and were based out of Corona Yard. The cars were rebuilt in-house in 1985 by the Coney Island Shop, except for one car (9306), which was not rebuilt and instead sent to the New York Transit Museum in 1976. However, they were not retrofitted with air conditioning system and instead retained their original Axiflow ceiling fans. For this reason, they were not used during the summer months due to poor air circulation  or air flow and high humidity; the 7 train used 10 car trains when the cars were not used. Retirement and after-life service. In 1996, New York City Transit Authority announced their plan to phase out the Redbirds with the R142 and R142A fleets. While the Redbirds on the IRT Main Line were beginning to be retired starting in early 2001, the service was still provided by R33S and R36 cars. In January 2002, a set of R62As arrived from the IRT mainline. As more R142s and R142As were delivered, R62As were gradually transferred from the and to the  , in turn replacing R33S/R36 trains. The last car remaining R33S, 9309, made its final trip on November 3, 2003, on the 7 service with ten R36 cars, marking the end of the Redbirds and non-stainless steel cars in the subway. Most R33S cars were converted to work motors in the early 2000s, and handle such tasks as providing traction for B-Division rail adhesion cars and refuse trains. The number "1" was placed before the former number (i.e. car 9345 became 19345) of some cars. The work cars are based out of various yards around the system and  handle such tasks as providing traction for A-Division rail adhesion cars and refuse trains, and hauling cars during car moves between different subway yards. The cars that were not converted were 9306 and 9327, which were preserved as heritage cars after their retirement from revenue service, and 9321, which was stripped and sunken as an artificial reef in 2001. Recently, the remaining R33S cars have been decommissioned as they experience structural or mechanical issues. Car 9339 was retired, stripped, and then sunken as an artificial reef in 2010 after it suffered fire damage that year. A handful of cars  were replaced by reassigned R32 cars, stripped of parts to keep other IRT SMEE cars running, and then scrapped in 2013. Four cars were sidelined in 2017, after which they were sent into preservation. Currently, another handful of cars are being replaced by reassigned R42 cars. Six cars have been preserved: Fleet details. A detailed list of the 40 R33S cars is below, where bolded numbers indicate a car active in work service: