R46 (New York City Subway car)
The R46 subway car was built by Pullman Standard in Chicago, Illinois in 1975-1978 for the IND and BMT routes of the New York Subway. These cars, as well as the previous R44 were 75' long. While the R44 had Westinghouse propulsion, the R46 had GE.
The R46 order was 754 cars and numbered from 500-1278, after being rebuilt in 1990-1991 they were renumbered to 5482-6258. Only 752 cars were rebuilt by Morrison-Knudsen. Two of the cars had been scrapped, due to accidents.
The R46's currently serve the (sometimes on the Template:NYCS E), Template:NYCS F, Template:NYCS G, Template:NYCS R, and Template:NYCS V lines. Most of these cars are based out of Jamaica Yard in Queens.
Like the R44, they run in linked sets, ABBA. Even cars with cabs are A cars, odd cars (without cabs) are B cars.
R-46 problems from the beginning to the present day
The R-46 began when the first cracked R-46 Rockwell HPT2 truck was discovered in March of 1977, just a few years after the R-46s appeared on the subway, after a transom arm cracked off its parent-side frame casing, causing the traction motor to fall onto an axle. The lightweight trucks operated under stress forces three times greater than what they were designed to handle. Filters were installed in test instrumentation when Pullman Standard, the builder, tested the trucks in 1973, and these filters were used improperly, masking stress forces. The effect was that cracks developed in them, and these cracks could lead to a truck failure, possibly causing a derailment. Dubious TA engineers back in 1972 cautioned against buying the Rockwell trucks.
MTA R-46s placed on the Brighton Line were retrofitted after residents complained about vibrations and higher noise levels than the previously used cars. In addition, part of the 754-car order was significantly behind schedule due to a strike at the builder, Pullman Standard. The Transit Authority filed a US$112.3 million lawsuit against Pullman Standard and Rockwell International for compensation for both the flawed trucks and the delayed delivery. Rockwell, in its defense, claimed that TA terms for stress tests on the trucks were poorer than those the corporation wanted to run themselves. Charges of corruption by TA officials, namely accepting poor quality subway cars was denied by the TA, but was investigated by New York City’s Department of Investigation. When the R-46s were acquired, the TA did not buy a few samples of the trucks to test out on the subway first, which ran counter to its long standing policy to test out new components before making a bulk purchase of them. MTA Chief William Ronan had allowed the purchase exclusive of the initial test model because he felt that the TA was forced to get new equipment on the system. Years later, Manhattan Borough President Andrew Stein would accuse Ronan of making a highly suspect deal with Rockwell.
By 1978, the R-46s had 264 trucks with a range of cracks, gouges and sand holes holes in them. As these trucks were pulled out of service for repair, the left over R-46s had to be checked three times a week. To make matter worse, the last R-46s due in 1978 were postponed because of the Pullman Standard strike. In February of 1978, 889 cracks were found in 547 of the trucks. The cracking became so awful that on June 14th, 1979, New York City Mayor Koch ordered 109 R-46s with trucks that had two or more cracks out of service. As of that date, 1,200 cracks classified into seven special types were found to affect these trucks. The last of the R-46s were distributed in December of 1978, three years behind schedule. An account called the R-46s "the most troubled subway car ever purchased".
An arrangement to allow Pullman to repair rather than replace the trucks was suggested by Senior Executive John G. deRoos, but many officials felt this would let Pullman off the hook too lightly. The TA found that welding the trucks would not resolve the predicament, and wanted them replaced irrespective of the cost. This is essentially why they filed the claim. The MTA ended up discarding the deRoos-backed repair plan.
In July of 1979 Pullman Standard informed the TA that the hand brake assemblies for the R-46 could be faulty and they should be detached. The TA decided not to get rid of them, but removed the R46s from any service that crossed the Manhattan Bridge and ran on the Sea Beach Express tracks. In late July 1979, inspectors reported that steel was wearing away in the spot where the car body is joined to the truck, and that this could be potentially unsafe.
By the end of 1979, twenty other flaws in the R-46 were found, and the Transit Authority filed another US$80 million charge against Pullman Standard and a number of other subcontractors. This lawsuit negated an agreement made with Pullman by executive director John G. deRoos for US$1.5 million in spare parts to remedy the defects. It was the invalidation of this agreement that led to deRoos resignation, amid disapproval of his handling the problem unsuccessfully. Also in late December, because so many R-46s were out of service, the Transit Authority removed 100 R-16 cars from storage, got them in running order and placed them in service on the subway. Only a few years before, it was the R-16 series of subway cars that were considered the least reliable in the system, and they were ironically taking the place of the newest cars in the fleet. The R-16s suffered from controllers that frequently shorted out, preventing the cars from moving. Initially placed into service in 1955, the R-16s were removed from service only 20 years later because of this problem. US$200,000 was spent, in total, in sprucing up and temporarily repairing the R-16s. Just as the R-44 put St. Louis Car out of the passenger car business, the R-46 order put Pullman Standard out of business. Only the Budd Company was still left.
The R-46 Rockwell truck mess continued nonstop and unabated into 1980. This time the number of cracks found on the trucks almost doubled, from 889 cracks logged in February 1979 to 1,700 in March 1980. The R-46s had to be inspected several times a week at the TA's cost. As of March 1980, 62 R-46s were out of service due to cracks and 112 were out of service for other reasons. On September, 1980, two cracks of a type not earlier than seen were found on the trucks. The effect, the TA cut the R-46 usage rate in half, and they would run only during weekday rush hours. Until this time, they were run amid six in the morning and ten in the evening every day. Hobble the R-46s in and out of the yards was reason of delays throughout all the IND-BMT lines. In an effort to reduce the mileage that the R-46s ran, 144 cars of them were moved to the Brighton Line, but criticism from Brighton Beach residents about excessive vibration forced the TA to shift them to the (A) and (CC) lines. Ironically, R-46s were run at all times during a sharp equipment deficiency during December 1980 through January 1981, due to very cold weather. In early 1981 where R-10s were making up the service! All of the R-16s, the cars the R-46s were intended to replace, were put back into service while the R-46 troubles were sorted out. The problems were, besides the cracked trucks, heaters and wiring that posed fire hazards, faulty lighting and door controls. Yet there was even a TA proposal to remove the cross seats from the R-46s and replace them with side facing seats, as found in the R-27s through R-42s. In late December of 1981, the TA won US$72 million in damages from Rockwell International, but the City Department of Investigation indicted seven high-ranking transit officials in connection with the planning, purchase, inspection and acceptance of the R-46 subway cars. Improprieties such as favoritism to certain contactors and mismanagement were cited. On March 8th, 1982, Rockwell paid New York City US$80 million for damages that resulted from the faulty trucks.
By 1986, R-46’s Mean Distance Between Failures ratings was a dismal approximate 10,000 miles. This is the worst ratings ever for the TA's history.
Until the improvements came on MTA NYCT's General Overhaul (GOH) program in the mid 1980s, which to improved the life span of their present cars and integrate the improvements of state of the art controls . On 1989 to 1991, Morrison-Knudsen was the rebuilder of the R-46 project. Morrison-Knudsen provides the update features and new technologhy add-ins to accomdate R46 as a brand new cars. When the brand new and updated look of R-46, it returned to service. The R46 updated look sported with the LCD destination signs, the blue strip has been removed only bared pure stainless steel, improvements on driving, lighting, controlling, air conditioning and more. Since the overhaul, the reliability of the R46 has vastly improved and is no longer considered to be the lemon that it once was. The R46's should remain in service until about 2015.
R-46 specifications
| Car builder | Pullman Standard Rail Company; Chicago, IL (USA) | |
| Car body | pure stainless steel with carbon end bonnet | |
| Unit numbers | 5482-6258 | |
| Fleet of | 752 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 | General Electric E-CAM, DC Traction motors | |
| Power (4 per car) | 115 horsepower | 86 kW |
| Brakes | New York Air Brake System (NYAB) "SMEE" Braking System | |
| Average car weight (empty) |
~90,000 lb | ~42,000 kg |
| Maximum speed | 65 mph | 105 km/h (Later Lowered) |
| Total seated passengers | (Cab Car) A car: 70 / (No Cab) B car: 76 | |
| Air conditioning system | Two Thermo King HVAC units each car. | |
| Maximum Train Length | 8 Cars (2 Units) | |
| Notes |
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| Price per car (new, 1974) | US$275,381 | |