| LAST Public Run Day of 2009 October 25th. |
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| Long Island Live Steamers public run season has begun with a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Steam, Diesel and Electric trains were bringing our visitors from Southhaven to Jamaica Station. We welcome you to join us on our next public run. |
  | Hot Stations and Hotter Cars: The D Type Triplex Carsby John ScalaThe NYC Subway system has had about 50 different types of subway cars on their roster at one time or another. Interestingly the cars I have the fondest memories the dimmest, hottest and noisiest. My favorite was called the D type Triplex.We have to go back to 1927 when the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation, the precursor of the BMT Lines, purchased steel subway cars from a British-American firm, the Pressed Steel Car Company. Due to some serious accidents, the BMT was under pressure to replace its wooden subway car with all steel ones. The D Type Triplex units were one of the different units ordered. One hundred and twenty one units were built over a three year period. These units ran for almost their entire lives on the Brighton Beach and SCJ Beach Lines. |
| These were a unique type of subway cars for their time because they were first articulated rapid transit rolling stock used in the United States. The Triplex consisted of 3 car body units, sequentially labeled A, B, and C. Normally a standard subway car has a set of wheels or trucks at each end of the car. The Triplex subway cars, however, shared their wheels or trucks. Three cars shared four trucks. The middle trucks were placed beneath an articulated drum which attached the center B unit to the A and C units. The two trailer trucks were placed on kingpins near the ends of the A and C cars. The trucks in the middle had the contact shoes that drew the power from the third rail. All trucks were powered with either GE or Westinghouse 200 hp motors. The units were heavy, averaging almost 210,000 lbs each, but they had a reputation with the BMT and other operating agencies as being especially reliable, requiring minimal maintenance, and experiencing fewer breakdowns, than other NYC subway equipment. Due to their weight, in later years some of these trains were routed through the Montague Tunnel instead of the increasingly fragile Manhattan Bridge. | |
| At the time they had a number of innovations. They were the first subway cars to have front signs with route designations. They also featured a sign box which included large dual destination signs which could be keyed by the train operator to light up in the direction the train was traveling. It would also show if the train was going via the Montague Tunnel or the Manhattan Bridge. A couple of hand cranks were used to change destinations and directions. These were among the earliest models to have a conductors/engineers cab. The mechanism for controlling the doors was located in the engineers cab and afforded the conductors a fairly unobstructed view along the length of the trains. They mitigated the crush of passengers moving in and out of the cars so common on the AB Standard cars. Continued Next Page - Click Here. | |