Previous Page First Page Next Page

Page 5

C-Type Pilot 1923

     Elevated cars, like many early railroad cars, consisted of a more-or-less enclosed body with open platforms at the car ends for entering and exiting passengers. While this was a flexible arrangement, it was labor intensive and relatively less safe and comfortable for passengers than fully enclosed cars..

     The labor issue arose because safety considerations required that the car platforms be gated in to prevent riders from possibly tumbling two or three stories from the elevated trains to the street. These gates required a trainman to be positioned between each pair of cars--so a five train required five personnel--the motorman and four trainmen to operate the gates and see to the safety of passengers. If the car ends could be enclosed and automatic doors fitted, more than half the crew could be eliminated.

     The IRT's Manhattan Elevated division attacked the problem in straight forward fashion, enclosing the ends of cars chosen for modification and fitting doors where the gates had been.

"Safety Sectional Units" was how the BMT styled the two pilot 3-car "C" units, created in the 39th Street Mechanical Shops in 1923. The center placement of the doors proved not much better than the gates, so later units used quarter-point doors, as seen below.

     The BMT, however, decided that as long as they were going to have to put some work into the conversion, they might as well achieve some additional improvements. They wanted to move the doors away from the car ends, which would improve passenger loading and unloading by shortening the distances between car entryways. As a bonus, the car ends would be enclosed in sturdier steel and the motormen would enjoy a fully enclosed, unobstructed and private operating cab.

     The C-types met these goals, but the result looked like the proverbial "horse designed by a committee" (see below). An innovative part of their design, used in BMT subway cars, but not in the cars to be redesigned for the World's Fair, was the inclusion of corridors for safe weather-free passage between cars.

C-type blueprint

The Production C-Types. The older vintage of the center car of the set, at right, is evident here. Where the cars were joined to each other the platforms were removed instead of enclosed. The BMT's objective of converting its L lines to 10' car widths began with the Fulton Street Line, so the 9' bodies of these cars were fitted with wider roofs and floor level projections to fill in the gap between the car floors and the modified Fulton Line platforms. Sliding doors were hung outboard of the car sides. Overall this produced a useful but unattractive design.

Next Page

Updated Wednesday, November 29, 2000

©1966 Silver Leaf Rapid Transit. ©2000 The Composing Stack Inc. All right reserved