Cinderella's Coaches

The decision was made to spiff up three kinds of equipment which served on the routes to the 1939-'40 World's Fair, some Q-types, to represent the BMT, some Lo-V's for the IRT, and some BMT 67' "Standards" to represent the BMT subway connection.

     Coney Island Shops was chosen as the venue, but now the TA had to pick which cars to give the royal treatment, and what needed to be done to them.

     Q-type 1622 A-B-C was sent down to the Coney Island Shops for its usual maintenance and came out the most surprised "Q" in town. Convenient at the time the order came down for a restored "Q", it was repainted under the supervision of the foreman who had worked on them for the BMT in '39, and for all the changes she rolled out of the shop sparkling in orange and blue with "B. M. T. LINES" proudly emblazoned on the letterboard.

     Painting the BMT Standards was more of a problem because their brown was a BMT invention Fortunately, a batch of the BMT's color, last used on the articulated Multis (scrapped in 1960), was discovered in the shop. Several more cans of the brew were made up to provide a sufficient quantity for the nearly 2800 square feet of exterior body on each car.

     "Subway Green" was a familiar color to everyone, and the IRT Lo-V cars were given a glossy coat of this color while the old "Interborough" Railroad Roman splayed across the letterboard was painted in gold from old stencils.

After dual operation of the Queens lines ended, the Q-types were freed up to replace older equipment on the IRT Third Avenue el, last elevated mainline in Manhattan. Here a train of them is seen traveling downtown from The Bronx to South Ferry, passing the Third's 129th Street closed stub end terminal in East Harlem.

Last Stop. After the Manhattan portion of the Third Avenue el closed, the Q's were modified yet again to replace the last gate cars on the system, arriving on the Myrtle Avenue L in the Fall of 1958. The roofs were lowered to subway clearances so the cars could take any route to the Coney Island yards for major shop work.

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