MTH HO 80-2374-1 - R-21 Subway Set "Metropolitan Transportation Authority" w/ PS3 (4-Car) - MIB

• Road Name: Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Red w/Silver Roof - South Bound Express)
• Road Number: 7053, 7064, 7102, 7157
• Product Line: MTH HO
• Scale: HO Scale
• Release: Sept. 2018

Features:

Set Features

• 4-Car Consist with (1) Powered Car, (3) Non-Powered Cars

Powered Car Features

• Intricately Detailed ABS Body
• Metal Chassis
• Detailed Car Undercarriage
• Authentic Paint Scheme
• Metal Wheels and Axles
• RP25 Metal Wheels
• (2) #158 Scale Kadee Whisker Couplers
• Prototypical Rule 17 Lighting
• Directionally Controlled Constant Voltage LED Headlight
• Powerful 5-Pole Precision Flywheel Equipped Skew-Wound Balanced Motor
• Onboard DCC Receiver
• Locomotive Speed Control In Scale MPH Increments
• Operates On Code 70, 83 and 100 Track
• 1:87 Scale Proportions
• Equipped With Proto-Sound 3.0 Featuring Station Stop Proto-Effects

• F0 Head/Tail light
• F1 Bell
• F2 Horn
• F3 Start-up/Shut-down
• F4 PFA
• F5 Lights (except head/tail)
• F6 Master Volume
• F7 Front Coupler
• F8 Rear Coupler
• F9 Forward Signal
• F10 Reverse Signal
• F11 Grade Crossing
• F15 Idle Sequence 2
• F16 Idle Sequence 1
• F17 Extended Start-up
• F18 Extended Shut-down
• F19 Train Marker
• F20 Ditch Light Flash/Std
• F21 One Shot Doppler
• F22 Coupler Slack
• F23 Coupler Close
• F24 Single Horn Blast
• F25 Engine Sounds
• F26 Brake Sounds
• F27 Cab Chatter
• F28 Feature Reset

Non-Powered Car Features

• Durable ABS Intricately Detailed Bodies
• Metal Wheels and Axles
• RP25 Metal Wheels
• Detailed 4-Wheel Trucks
• Overhead Constant Voltage LED Interior Lighting
• (2) #158 Scale Kadee Whisker Couplers
• Authentic Paint Scheme
• Detailed Car Interiors
• Metal Chassis
• Detailed Car Undercarriage

Route: #3 Lenox 7th Ave Express (Southbound)

Stops:

1. 148th St. - Lenox Terminal

2. 110th St. - Central Park

3. 72nd Street

4. 34th St. - Penn Station

5. Chamber Street

6. Nevins Street

7. Franklin Ave.

8. Pennsylvania Ave. 

9. New Lots Avenue

Overview:

On June 1, 1940, the City of New York acquired the two subway systems it didn't already own - the IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit Co.) and the BMT (Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corp.) - and consolidated them with the city-owned IND (Independent Subway System). It was readily apparent that the city's fleet of aging subway cars was desperately in need of replacement, and immediately after World War II, management began to develop a new car that would be standard throughout the system and incorporate the latest advances in subway design. This effort was complicated by the fact that portions of the IRT had tighter clearances than the IND and BMT, so all future designs would incorporate a shorter, narrower IRT version.

Beginning with contract R-10, and IRT-sized contract R-12 delivered in 1948, the new cars featured welded steel bodies, fluorescent lighting that made them considerably brighter than prewar cars, and seating made of foam rubber covered with velon, a new plastic material that replaced the rattan seating of older cars. A major improvement was a new type of brake system known as Straight Air Motor Car Electric-Pneumatic Emergency (SMEE), which combined ordinary air brakes with dynamic braking, in which a car's electric motors, by having their polarities reversed, were converted to generators in order to slow the car. This significantly reduced brake shoe wear and maintenance costs. Beginning with the R-12, the postwar IRT cars were known as the SMEE fleet.

The 400 cars built under contract R-17 were part of the 1950s expansion of the SMEE fleet, which also included the similar-looking R-15, R-21 and R-22 cars. As was normal practice at the time, the 400 R-17 cars delivered by St. Louis Car Co. in 1955-1956 were evenly split between General Electric and Westinghouse electrical gear, with each company equipping half the cars. The R-17s could be operated independently or with any other SMEE cars, and various SMEE types were often intermixed in trains. Ten of the R-17s were delivered with factory-installed air conditioning. The experiment proved unsuccessful, however, and the AC was later removed. Also removed were the comfortable velon seats, which proved an easy mark for vandals and were replaced by hard fiberglass benches.

Delivered in a maroon paint scheme, the R-17s were repainted in the MTA's new blue and silver colors in the 1970s. A less-than-successful white scheme, intended to discourage taggers, followed in the 1980s. And just a few years before their retirement in 1988, 16 cars were painted in the "fox red" used on the Redbird cars, although the R-17s were never officially part of the Redbird fleet.