R68 (New York City Subway car)

R68 is a New York City Subway car. The 425-car contract was a joint venture of Westinghouse AM-Rail Company, ANF Industrie of Paris, and other companies. The cars were built in France from 1986 to 1988 and shipped to New York Harbor.

The R68 was built by combining R46 and R62A features to build a better, state-of-the-art subway car with high Mean Distance Between Failure (MDBF), leading to better service. R68 was the third R-class contract to be built with 75-foot (23 m) cars, which have more room for sitting and standing passengers per car than the 60-foot cars that were used previously. However, because 75-foot cars take longer to load and unload, more recent orders have returned to 60-foot cars.

The R68's first entry to revenue service was on June 20,1986 on the D service; the first cars were numbered 2500-2507. There were two contracts to supply the R68. The primary order was: 2500-2727, and the R68-1 option order was 2728-2924. The fleet today primarily runs on the D, N, Q, S (Franklin Avenue Shuttle), and very rarely on the B and W. R68s are based out of the Concourse Yard in the Bronx and the Coney Island Complex in Brooklyn.

History

In 1985 the brand new R68 was being deliverd. In January 1986 it made an test run on the D train. On June 20,1986 the R68 ran full time on the D Line. In 1987 when the N and R switch Northern terminals the N and Q Trains received the next batch of the R68. In 1996 the S shuttle received some R68. In 1998 the R40 went to the Q Line while the R68 went to the B Line. In 2000 the B received 20 more R68. On July 22 2001 the Q and the brand new W trans received some R68 from the B and D Lines due to construction but the B and D still had entirely R68. On February 22 2004 the D had the highest R68. The B and W gave up its R68 to the N Line. Sometimes the B will borrow the R68 from the D or Q Lines and when there's an occur on the N line the R68 can be change to a W train.

Future Planned

When the R160 is deliverd 205 more R68 will be deliverd and it will run on the B, D, N, Q, S, W and very rarely on the A and C.

R-68 Specifications

Car builder	Westinghouse Amrail Company and ANF Industrie (now a subsidiary of Bombardier) in Paris, France
Other contributors in the R68 contract:	Jeumont-Schneider cars 2500-2727 and Alsthom Rail cars 2728-2924.
Car body	stainless steel with fiberglass end bonnet
Unit numbers	2500-2915 are in 4-car sets and 2916-2924 are remain in single sets
Fleet of	425 cars
Car dimensions	75 ft long 10 ft wide 12 ft 1⁵⁄₈ in high	22.86 m long 3.048 m wide 3.7 m high
Track, standard gauge	4 ft 8¹⁄₂ in	1.435 m
Doorway width (side—clear opening)	4 ft 2 in	1.27 m
Wheel diameter	34 inches	864 mm
Propulsion system	Westinghouse (AdTranz) E-CAM XCB248S
DC Traction Motors	4 Westinghouse 1447J
Power (4 per car)	115 horsepower	86 kW
Brakes	New York Air Braking (NYAB) GSX23 "SMEE" braking system, WABCO Air Braking Vaule
Average car weight (empty)	92,750 lb	42,070 kg
Maximum speed	65 mph	105 km/h
Total seated passengers	70
Air conditioning system	Two Stone Safety HVAC units each car.
Notes	Transverse cabs at #1 end; narrow cab at #2 end Configured in 4-car sets except cars 2916-2924 are singles used for the Franklin Avenue Shuttle.
Price per car (new, 1986)	US$915,000 (BID)

External links

nycsubway.org - R68 page information