In 1964, the R-32 “Brightliner” cars manufactured by the Budd Company (in business as a contractor from 1912-2014) were placed in service on BMT and IND lines in the NYC subways. At this remove it’s easy to underestimate how different they looked back then with their stainless steel corrugated exteriors. Previously subway car models had a gun metal to dark gray appearance with ironclad exteriors; of course, interiors were more interesting, with rattan seats, ceiling fans and exposed incandescent lightbulbs.
In the 1980s, R-32s got a major overhaul with the main feature being front roll signs replaced by electronic displays of what letter line the train was running on. Far as I know this was the first time electronic displays were used to identify trains. Side windows on the R-46 and R-68 trains also used electronic displays, though those models kept roll signs in the front and rear.
The R-32s ran from 1964 to late 2020 in regular service and pop up occasionally on nostaglia rides run by the NYC Transit Museum. By 2016, when I got this photo on Broadway in Williamsburg, R-32s were found on the J/Z lines and almost all A trains in use then, as well as occasionally on the C and E. The J in particular served as a de facto train museum, featuring R-32 (1964) trains and R-42 (1969-1970) units. All have since been replaced by newer cars.
Despite its venerable status. the R-32 was never my favorite subway car, as it featured longitudinal bench seating. I preferred, and still prefer, R46 and R-68 (BMT and IND cars that have yellow and orange seats and chime two tones when the doors close (because I can sit perpendicularly to windows and look outside at platforms underground, and everything on els.
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5/19/26
11 comments
Never remember seeing rattan seats on the R32s. They were upholstered in dark red vinyl.
I did not say that. I said rattan seating was common in models prior to the R-32.
So you did! Mea Culpa.
Probably the last ones to use metal hand straps too.As a kid I could swing from one side of the car
to the other all the way to the end just using the hand straps and the swaying of the car for momentum.
Of course the car had to be empty.We called it Subway Gymnastics.
A few comments:
First, let me correct the poster who said that the R32 car seats were upholstered in dark red vinyl. Definitely not. When new the cars had light blue fiberglass bench seats; after renovation the seat color was gray but the bench arrangement did not change.
After renovation the R32 were retrofitted with air conditioning; when new its fans were mounted in the ceilings which were basically ineffective when the outside temperature was above 75 degrees F.
The R32 was one of my all time favorites. Except for ten prototype R11 cars in 1949, it was the only NYC subway car model built by the Budd Company. That firm’s products were well known to mainline railroad passengers, because the body sides were fluted stainless steel from top to bottom. Budd was based in Philadelphia and built a 270 car order for the Quaker City’s subways in 1960, followed by a 620 car order for the Long Island Rail Road in 1969.
The R32 was a solid performer, as evidenced by the fact that some lasted 58 years in service (1964-2022).
As someone who has lived at the Manhattan end of the line of the A train, I also mourn the loss of being able to face in the direction you are headed, whether or not you have anything to look at outside the window next to you. Sitting and sliding on a bench that no longer even tries to have defined seat depressions is not the least bit enjoyable. The newest trains on the line now are so video oriented that I am continually distracted by the constant barrage of ads and other time wasters. I always have some form of hard print that I am trying to read (remember when there were paper newspapers held in front of a majority of riders?), but it is a struggle to keep the flickering screens our of my range of vision. Yes, I do give credit for the overhead displays of time and the upcoming station, but I would gladly sacrifice them for better seating and a less hyped-up and aggressively commercial subway car interior.
The R32’s were my favorite cars.
So you did! Mea Culpa!
In a city mass transit system that must bombard its riders with signs instructing them how to behave in a civilized manner, it is no surprise to find that passengers also apparently have no clue how to seat themselves without taking up 2 1/2 seats. They are lost without those seat indicators.
Just a curious aside, those incandescent bulbs had a reverse screw base to prevent them from being stolen and used at home.
Budd also built a stainless steel experimental 5 unit articulated train for the BMT which entered service in 1934.