The IRT "SMEE" Fleet (1948-1964)

The so-called IRT "SMEE" fleet consisted of all cars built for the former Interborough lines between 1948 and 1964, including the popular "Redbird" cars retired in 2003. The SMEE fleet numbered 2,860 entirely-compatible cars. It was common up until the General Overhaul period in the late 1980s to see trains made up of different car types in different liveries.

Beginning in 1940, when the Board of Transportation unified the three divisions of the subway system, car design was centrally managed and the first of these types, the R-10 for the Independent lines, was ordered in 1947. These cars had a number of improvements over the old designs, newly designed trucks and more powerful motors, door motor improvements, lighting improvements, etc., and a new type of braking system, the "SMEE": Straight Air Motor Car Electric-Pneumatic Emergency, which combined dynamic and air braking in a single package. As Ed Davis described in They Moved the Millions, the "inclusion of dynamic braking was the most significant improvement on the R-10 and all stock to follow... the traction motors, by having field polarities reversed, act as generators and serve as a brake by retarding motor speed, thence thru the gearing the speed of the axles is reduced and train speed reduced. The beauty of this sytem is that brake shoe wear is reduced tremendously and therefore maintenance costs reduced."

The R-12, ordered from American Car & Foundry in 1948, was the first "IRT" sized car based on this new design, shorter, narrower, and with straight longitudinal seats and one less door pair per side compared to the R-10. There were 100 of these cars and another 150 nearly identical twins odered under contract R-14, also from ACF, in 1949. The R-15, R-17, R-21, and R-22 contracts followed from 1950 to 1958, nearly identical-looking cars built by ACF and St. Louis Car Co. These cars were nearly entirely replaced later by the R-62 and R-62A deliveries.

The R-26/R-28 cars were the oldest of the Redbirds, so called because of their dark red livery worn in the cars' later years. The first of these was built in 1959, again by ACF, and rebuilt by Morrison-Knudsen from 1985 to 1987. Because of their deterioration and wear-and-tear throughout the years of hard work, they were the first Redbird cars in 2001 to be stripped, reefed, and replaced by the R-142/R-142A cars. Like the R-26 and the R-28 cars, the R-29s also suffered deterioration and overwork, especially those on the IRT #6 Pelham line (cars 8570-8690). These cars were also rebuilt by Morrison-Knudsen in 1985 to 1987.

Before these cars were retired, a number of these cars served in work service. Cars 7818-19 and 7846-47 were used for a brief period as Refuse Collection Cars in 2002. These cars reportedly went back to passenger service but were eventually stripped and reefed. Also in 2002 during the summer months, cars 7848-49 were used as temporary school cars at the south side of East 180th Street Yard at the end of Track 10. The pair was reportedly mechanically dead in November 2002 and remained in the yard through March 2003, with the front end signed for the IRT #5 - Dyre Avenue line. These cars were later scrapped. The last R-26/R-28 cars to be reefed were cars 7862-63 in October 2003.

Some R-29s were also in work service for a while. In 2001, the MTA tested out four Pelham-assigned cars for switch dolly work service. These were cars 8600-01 and 8634-35. But for some reason, after only a few months, the MTA opted to strip the cars and reef them. In November 2002, cars 8716-17 and 8718-19 were used for work service. They were first seen operating along with Rail Adhesion Car R-33 #8885. These cars were also stripped and reefed sometime in 2003.

The R-33s were the first mainline cars to be rebuilt by the Metropolitan Transit Authority beginning in 1987 and ending in 1991. After general overhaul, the R-33's improved performance made the cars one of the most dependable subway cars in the system. That is why the R33s are preferred to be converted into work cars rather than other Redbird types.

However these cars suffered from rust, especially the R-33 cars on the Lexington Avenue IRT #4 line (9216-9305, and later 8836-8857 from IRT #5). By the end of their service, all of the IRT #4 Redbirds were really out of shape. In some cases, some cars had small holes under windows and when it rained, water would seep though the roof and make large puddles on the floor. One pair, cars 9294-95, were so worn out that their car numbers could not be seen on the number plates. The last R-33s were retired on April 15, 2003 from the Lexington Avenue IRT #4 line.

Why do the car lights blink on the R-33/R-36 World's Fair/Flushing Line cars but not the other Redbirds?

The original carbody lighting design called for the lights to be run directly off the 600V supply (with a polarity reverser relay when flourescents came along). A relay called the ELR (Emergency Lighting Relay) was also across the line. When the 600V failed (car crosses a contact rail gap), the relay goes off and the normally-closed contacts of the relay apply 37V battery voltage to a set of emergency, or "battery" lights. On the IRT redbirds, these are incandescent bulbs located along the center of the car. There are some inside the long flourescent glass fixture, and there is one each in the center of each axiflow fan.

When the R-26/R-28/R-29 fleet was overhauled by MK, the battery lights were removed from the center of the fans and PA speakers replaced them. On these cars, a solid-state converter replaces the older motor-generator set for converting 600V to battery voltage, and the same converter unit also contains a solid state lighting inverter to take the battery voltage, chop it to AC, and step it up to drive the flourescent bulbs. When 600 goes off on these cars, the lights stay on fully for up to about 30 seconds. In prolonged power-out, the inverter gradually shuts down banks of lights until only two lights are on in the entire car.

The Flushing cars were rebuilt in 1985 by Coney Island, before the more thorough car overhaul program was devised. They left a lot of "old technology" behind, including the Motor-Generator and the classic SMEE pneumatic units. That's why those are the only cars that still go "puff" when the doors close, and why the lights still blink out across third rail gaps.