How many Subway Sets do you own?

Some Chicago stuff:

And a NYC car converted to scale wheels and couplers:

I also have a couple of Lo-Vs (one yellow to be converted as the above R-17 and one green) and a set of R-142A with the two-car add-on set.

I recently fished a single red R-17 out of the 'bay for a ridiculously low price as it was listed as a "red passenger car".

Edit: I forgot to add that I have the following:

6 CTA 4-car sets

5 CTA 2-car sets

1 NYC 4-car set

1 NYC 2-car set

several miscellaneous single cars

@Strap Hanger posted:

Bruce clearly likes subways but judging from his collection, he really, really, really likes R-62s and worlds fair Q types (with Lo-Vs a close third), LOL!

That he does  Q types and work trains are probably my least favorite  The R1, R11 and R34 are the best sets by far  I was told the newer R40's are on the water  What planets water I dont know   Cant wait to see if they really fixed the roofs

@bluelinec4 posted:

That he does  Q types and work trains are probably my least favorite  The R1, R11 and R34 are the best sets by far  I was told the newer R40's are on the water  What planets water I dont know   Cant wait to see if they really fixed the roofs

Love my R-1s as well. However, I noticed some of the decking in front of certain doors had  fallen off and needed to be glued back on. I was lucky to find the pieces in between my tracks.  I love mixing consists with the blue door R-34s and the R-32s.  The R-32s are great as well if you just keep the doors shut and never need to remove the engine shell for service.  Otherwise, what a pain for such a beautiful set.  Good luck with the new R-40s.  I used SIRTs fix for my original R-40 roof grills and it looks great and has held up well. The interiors with the metal hand straps make this a top 5 set for me.  

Just this one…

@bluelinec4 posted:

I have a lot of subway sets.  Nearly every ny subway that mth made.  This pic is the collection of a fellow club member.  I think I have him beat though.  My favorite set is the r1.  At one time I had seven sets of them.  Currently have 3

I would love to get a R1 set. When I was at Greenberg a guy told me he had one to sell me and gave me his card. I called him and left a message I but never heard back from him 😫😫

@BNSF-Matt posted:

I have been on the lookout for the CTA Green/Creme, probably the only set on my radar.

I’ve got that Chicago 4 car set with 2 car addon… you looking to trade? Do you have any Nyc sets?

@Brooklyn Corey posted:

I would love to get a R1 set. When I was at Greenberg a guy told me he had one to sell me and gave me his card. I called him and left a message I but never heard back from him 😫😫

Check with Ready to Roll in Miami.   I believe they have one

Just the Lionel R-27 (but two copies of it to have a spare). If Lionel came out with updated door-opening versions I'd be a willing customer.

@West Side Joe posted:

Just the Lionel R-27 (but two copies of it to have a spare). If Lionel came out with updated door-opening versions I'd be a willing customer.

If you’re looking to sell one of the sets keep me in mind !!

Don't give up looking. I found the second one on Ebay: someone was liquidating a collector's stash; this set was in the box, never opened. The owner had bought it and put it on the shelf. The seller was asking almost half the original list price. I jumped at the chance.  There are more like that out there.

@West Side Joe posted:

Just the Lionel R-27 (but two copies of it to have a spare). If Lionel came out with updated door-opening versions I'd be a willing customer.

Hello Justino

VERY NICE subway Tunnel details -- and outside subway type 3rd rail and cover-board,  trackside support columns and braces,  very realistic.  I can image it with ATLAS 2 Rail scale track to really complete the scene to perfection !

Joe F

Joe F., I guess since I've been banned from FB (Justino was my FB "name"), it's probably time to retire the "Justino" moniker. I'm just a regular "Joe". 😁

@West Side Joe posted:

Joe F., I guess since I've been banned from FB (Justino was my FB "name"), it's probably time to retire the "Justino" moniker. I'm just a regular "Joe". 😁

Hello "Regular"  W S Joe !

Well, I am the "F" Joe (Joe F) -- another Joe, heh.

Well, I guess fartbook bounced you due to suspecting your having a false profile-identity - and wanted your ID documents info to prove it was a real person.  Same with me - Mine was set using a totally fabricated profile name and stats up by a pal and was not done by me - I didn't want to join but he insisted.  Well, for nearly 3 years it worked OK for me -- I met a number of people who already knew me for years, decades, and a few new ones. I posted tons of very historical info and photos, memories, facts, details, transit modeling info, etc.,    ALL GONE NOW -- vaporized by FB !  A loss to them and their FB viewers.

But I hardly miss FB  at all - and all the FB nonsense,  (suspensions -- FB jail, posts removed -- FB warnings & threats  over nothing -- and the frequently "lost" postings --they just disappeared for no reason.  I found a great replacement for FB founded by a person who wanted to make his new social media creation a 180 degrees turnaround from what is FB --  and millions of FB used have join it already.  In July 2.5 million joined.  Its called  mewe.com. Check it out !

Regards - Joe F

Mewe is tempting, but I'm not ready for another social media platform. I'll stick to newspapers, books, magazines and websites dedicated to specific endeavors like OGR Forums. My apologies to all for derailing this thread.

Hi Joe

It amazes me what goes on with FB. I admit I use it and found some of it redeeming, like connecting with high school friends, classic TV , and yes some train related groups, i.e Brian's O scale NY group. Other than that, reading about what people did today and over nonsense like that is useless.

Anyway glad you will remain here and post pictures. Your work as Joe F stated, is top shelf modeling.

TY

Steve

I sure wish some of you folks with subway-theme layouts would consider doing articles for the magazine. I have featured subways in the past that are usually (but not always) part of "regular" O gauge layouts, but would sure like to see more with subways as the central theme.

@Allan Miller posted:

I sure wish some of you folks with subway-theme layouts would consider doing articles for the magazine. I have featured subways in the past that are usually (but not always) part of "regular" O gauge layouts, but would sure like to see more with subways as the central theme.

Allan, what are the requirements for submitting an article to your magazine with respect to text, photos, length and content?

Just one.

You can read about my subway here: www.warrenvillerailroad.com

My one subway set does get a workout, as it's the only train on my layout! 😊

https://youtu.be/pOeSShwIMdw

Good point Allan an article on a Subway layout or section of a layout in OGR Magazine would be great. Lets see something.

I lost count....😂

I have 2 Rail King sets that run on a double track elevated line.

A recent photo I took utilizing my new "Chicago" backdrop.

@BNSF-Matt posted:

A recent photo I took utilizing my new "Chicago" backdrop.

Excellent modeling scene -- and very clean modeling work.  The lighting makes it look terrific -- did you have real late afternoon sunlight coming in thru a window  to get that effect ?  regards - Joe F

@Joseph Frank posted:

Excellent modeling scene -- and very clean modeling work.  The lighting makes it look terrific -- did you have real late afternoon sunlight coming in thru a window  to get that effect ?  regards - Joe F

Thank you Joe, I have no outside windows at the location of my layout in the basement. I do use two LED lighting kits on tripods with an orange filter to give it that dawn / dusk glow to it.

Hello Matt !

Thanks for that very interesting and informative lighting information !  My train room (basement but about only 1/3 below ground outside) has two closed (front wall and rear wall)  semi-sealed up windows so I have no source of daylight except when I open the front door to the strong east sun in the morning !  It only hits a small portion of the front of the layout !  I use a 150 Watt CLEAR bulb ( real incandescent ) -- with all room lighting (florescent tube 4 foot fixtures) off -- and here are some of my late afternoon effects -

see photos below.  Regards - Joe F

Here is something to try to model - heh -- (photo below)  --regards - Joe F

@Joseph Frank posted:

Joe, what type of subway car is that?

@Joseph Frank posted:

Here is something to try to model - heh -- (photo below)  --regards - Joe F

Philadelphia?

Hello Joe  (G) --

NO - somewhere in NY City along an El line in the 1960's - 70's period --  but I see a New Jersey Public Service Coordinated Transit GMC Bus at right - could be in upper Bronx after coming east off of the nearby George Washington Bridge on a route from New Jersey (Fort Lee, etc) -- perhaps seen under the IRT Broadway-Van Cort. Park EL line to W.242nd St Terminal (todays # 1 & 3 train)

regards - Joe F

@West Side Joe posted:

The Subway Car at the left side of the station is my model (one of 2  I built) of an IRT 1939-40 NY Worlds Fair class Steinway Low-V.  There were only 50 cars built (25 pairs) for the Fair as the IRT Company's newest (and final) rolling stock of 1939.  They had a Motorman cab at one end and a blind end (no controls nor cab) at the other end -- where the  door control boxes were located on the outside of the end walls.  They could run as SINGLE cars alone (for yard moves, or whatever)  but had to be coupled to another Steinway car so it could operate in the direction of its blind end.

The usual consist for the 2 car units of 1939-40 Worlds Fair pair of cars were:

[ CAB END -  BLIND  END ]    +    [ BLIND END  - CAB END  ]

--- and if a solo WF car was run without its opposite mate attached, it was run coupled in a train, with an older (1915 era) standard body Steinway Low-V  (looked just like other Low-V Cars with the usual enclosed vestibule at each end) as :  

[ CAB END - BLIND END  ]    +    [ CAB END  -  CAB  END ]

My Cars have full interior details - proper seats, ceiling fans, above window car car ads, and the inner bulkhead at the cab end of the car - see 2 interior photos below; (this was best quality available when I took them 25 years ago)

BELOW - view from Motorman CAB (see at left foreground side and inner bulkhead wall at right)  end of the car.  There is a 2 cushion rattan set under the side window in the small "cubbyhole" type space in front of the bulkhead  wall at right.  Ceiling vents are seen in ceiling sloping sides.

BELOW -- View at Blind end of car -- there is no interior bulkhead at this end - as seen at opposite end of UPPER photo)(yeah, I know the female seated figure looks, umm, odd, heh !)

Regards - Joe F

@Joseph Frank posted:

Here is something to try to model - heh -- (photo below)  --regards - Joe F

A SUPER fascinating photo: it is at "The Hub", a thriving commercial neighborhood at 149th St and Third Avenue in the South Bronx. There was a station on the El at that location but no longer there in your photo. I'm very surprised and impressed that such an old structure could still support the weight of that locomotive.

And I'm puzzled as to what NJ Public Service buses were doing in NYC that far away from the George Washington Bridge Bus Station (given the apparent existence of what seems like a bus station in the right of the old photo below). I can speculate that NJ Public Service buses had a transfer point to the Third Avenue El and the subways for NJ commuters at the Hub. After the GWB Bus station opened in 1963, all NJ buses coming over the bridge were required to terminate at the new bus station and would no longer traverse NYC streets, so that would put the date of your photo as prior to 1963.

I figured out the location from the name of the neckwear store to the left of the Thom McAn ("The Hub Neckwear Co."). Here's an earlier pic of the same area.

Thanks for sending me on a deep dive into South Bronx transit history! 😁

@Joseph Frank posted:

Here is something to try to model - heh -- (photo below)  --regards - Joe F

That reminds me of a photo that I saw years ago of a PRR GG1 somewhere on the IRT el.

@West Side Joe posted:

Hello Joe  G

SEE  MY  OWN  JUST  ADDED  PHOTOS  BELOW of  this  same  location

THANKS MUCH -- I spent an hour searching for Howard Clothes Store and Tom Mcan locations on Google but useless...but I recognized the EL structure and had a suspicion it was at 149th & 3rd.  You see the odd outer track girders and their connection to cross beams.  That was when the El was widened for creating a new 2-platform  express station in 1914-15 and the cross girders were extended outboard.  New twin track girders were installed on each extended cross girder for a new further outboard located UPTOWN & DOWNTOWN Local Track.  The original track girders for the original inboard located 2 local tracks (it was built as a single island platform station in early 1890's) were used to support the two new island platforms for the new express station.

Anyway, I actually have that same photo (and about 100 others in the 149th St Station area circa 1905 thru 1973) in my collection -- I should have followed my own hunch-suspicion, and first LOOKED at my 3rd Ave EL E. 149th St Station photos-album (I have an album of photos for EACH station on that EL - South Ferry, City Hall up to to Gun Hill Rd) and I would have saved a lot of time.   Yeah, I don't know WHY those NJ buses are there unless it was a private charter shopping trip or something to do with going to the Bronx Park Zoo, an outing, etc.

NO - that is not a bus station (white structure).   It actually houses the stairs and escalator from the below IRT Subway station to the above 3rd Ave EL Station.  Willis Avenue is in (and ends at) lower foreground and the Willis Ave. trolley tracks swing to merge with those under the 3rd Ave El.  This is a circa 1949-1950's photo -- Bronx streetcars ended in 1950 and overhead wire removed by 1951.

===========================================================================================

BELOW are some of the photos in my collection of that exact area -- the ones with * are those I shot.

BELOW -- N/W from Willis Ave to 3rd Ave EL E. 149th St Express Station over 3rd Ave - 1945

BELOW *-- N/W from Willis Ave. to 3rd Ave EL E.149th St Express Station over 3rd Ave - 1953

BELOW *-- N/W from Willis Ave to 3rd Ave EL E.149th St TERMINAL Station over 3rd Ave - 1972

BELOW *-- N/W from Willis Ave to abandoned 3rd Ave EL E.149th St Terminal Station over 3rd Ave.

note the Howard Store sign is gone - store out of business - 1975

BELOW *-- South along west side 3rd Ave  along the 3rd Ave EL's E.149th Street then TERMINAL

Station under the former S/B local track - Howard & Thom McAn stores both seen - 4-1973

BELOW -- The same photos as your photo -- view N/W from Willis Ave in 1949

Regards - Joe F  - and thanks again for the exact location !

quite several

I bought two more subway sets last week. Working on videos for them  

@Brooklyn Corey posted:

I bought two more subway sets last week. Working on videos for them  

Wow! You scored better than LSU over Florida today! These two new ones are among the best of the MTH subways. Both have fabulous interior/exterior detailing and run like a charm. After the unboxing and when you’ve had a chance to run both, let us know your call - which one is best in Brooklyn, Corey? For me, it’s extremely close, but I do have my preference.

Nice Corey! Congratulations!!

@Joseph Frank posted:

@West Side Joe posted:

Station under the former S/B local track - Howard & Thom McAn stores both seen - 4-1973

Regards - Joe F  - and thanks again for the exact location !

Nice photo - thanks!

My R1 set