HO R-17 Cars
So, some of you know
of my obsession with railroad stuff. Okay, well, most of
you. And many of you also know of my interest in subways and
transit equipment. Alas, it's not always easy to model that sort
of stuff- a lot of it is either not available or is very
expensive. But every now and then you come across something- a
Boeing LRV from IHC for example- that's a decent model of some kind of
transit equipment and available at a price that mere mortals can
afford. It's nice when that happens with a model in one's scale
of choice and the model in question represents something you're fond
of. Enter the Life-Like HO scale R-17 New York City subway
cars. Delivered by St. Louis Car Co. in 1955, the real cars
served in a number of different colors (many of which got plastered
over with graffiti) on just about every route of the IRT division of
system until 1988. Life-Like has released these in two color
schemes so far and a third is being prepared as of this writing.
The first set they put out was painted in the final colors the cars
wore before retirement- red bodies with silver roofs. The second
set, and the one I have, represents the repainting most equipment got
around 1970 with silver bodies adorned with a stripe in blue. The
third set is expected to be in the all-red colors used in the mid
'60s. The blue and silver set carries route signage in a style
appropriate for the time, indicating that the cars are part of the
shuttle train that runs between Grand Central Terminal and Times Square
in Midtown. These trains are only four cars long instead of the
ten cars that you find in most IRT trains today... Which is fine
because the set contains four cars! So, at least this time, I
don't have to buy multiple sets to do a full train. Why they sell
these in four car sets when the real things run in ten car sets, by and
large, is beyond me... I'll file that in with ten-packs of hot dogs and
eight-packs of hot dog buns. I keep hoping one of the companies
that makes these things will do five car sets and just get it over
with. But I digress... On to the photos!
![R-17 car 6539](6539_01.jpg)
Here we have a nice view of car no. 6539. It's one of the three
unpowered cars in the set. Unfortunately here you can see one of
the big problems this set has- the cars all sit way too high.
Like at least a scale foot too high. See the big gap between the
truck frames and the car body? That should be nearly
nonexistent. And see how far the carbody is above the coupler
there? That space should be just about nonexistent too.
Still looking into how to correct that- might be nontrivial. The
cars' frames are made out of metal.
![That R-17 car again.](6539_03.jpg)
A side view. The big gap is apparent here too. But
otherwise the cars' detailing is nice- all the underbody bits look
good, though they could use a bit of color here and there to bring out
the detail- red warning labels, white insulators for the resistor grids
(under the center entry door), etc.
![6539 Window Closeup](6539_Window_Closeup.jpg)
A close-up of the window area showing the drop-sash windows (air
conditioning on a subway car? Well, not back when these were
made...) and roll-sign showing the train's route. And yes, the
center window really was a little taller on these cars- though I think
that was changed in a rebuild at some point. The R-17 at the NYC
Transit Museum has windows that are all the same size as do my O scale
R-17's from Mike's Train House. More on that later though...
![Other side...](6539_04.jpg)
Here's the other side of the car. Pretty much the same story as
the other side- these cars were pretty much identical side to side and
end to end. Back then the IRT was getting a lot of cars with full
cabs on both ends that could operate individually and mixed into trains
indiscriminately. Later they went to married pairs with cars
having cabs only at one end (those ends arranged to face outward in
each pair) but there was still a hutch on the non-cab end for the
conductor to use when operating doors. Later still they went to
designs with full-width cabs at the ends of five-car sets. This
is why you must be in the first five cars of the train if you want to
get off at South Ferry (1 and 9 routes)- the station is only big enough
for the first five (it never got expanded to take ten car trains) and
the full-width cabs between the fifth and sixth cars prevent
passage. Chinese fire drills at Rector Street are not uncommon as
that's the last station before South Ferry.
![GCT end](6539_GCT_End.jpg)
The business end of the R-17. Here we see one of the most
distinctive features of the 17 series- the round porthole in the end
door. This was made up of two pieces of glass and could be opened
for ventilation by rotating the upper portion to open a wedge-shaped
hole. Most other types of cars had square drop-sash windows there
or just solid unopenable panes- that configuration being the standard
on air-conditioned cars. These cars are missing the
pantographs (sprung flexible frames) that are mounted on the ends
of cars to keep people from falling into the spaces in between at
stations... They're also missing the spring and chain arrangement
used to keep people moving between cars from falling out, the horns,
and the radio antennae that the real things had. I might have to
see about adding some parts to these- as soon as I can find someone
that makes appropriate parts. Might not be easy- especially for
those pantographs. Here we see that gap between the coupler and
the body again... By the way, transit cars didn't have knuckle couplers
generally. Oh well. Can't have everything.
![Times Square end](6539_TS_End.jpg)
The other end of the car- you'll note that it's virtually identical
except that this end carries signage indicating that it's heading
toward Times Square.
![O scale and HO scale R-17 cars](Scale_Comparison_02.jpg)
Okay, as I said, Life Like isn't the only company to make these cars...
And here we have one of my Mike's Train House O scale R-17 cars.
It has the horn (above the motorman's window on the end) and
pantographs that the HO models lack, but it's still missing a proper
antenna and it still has knuckle couplers. The MTH car also
carries more modern signage than the Life-Like cars do, a style that's
very unusual in a car painted this way; they indicate that this car is
part of a train running the 5 route, and the number being set in a
diamond instead of a circle means that it's an express run. I've
thought about back-dating the signs but so far have been too lazy to
actually do so. When coupled with stock couplers, both sets' cars
end up being way too far apart. MTH makes some dummy couplers
that are shorter
and that might work better for this- I'd have to order quite a few of
them though as my four R-17s only represent about 1/3 of my IRT fleet
in that scale- I have eight R-21s to equip too. The latter are
painted in the '80s red and silver colors. Fixing the HO set's
coupling distance may take some customization.
![Another scale comparison](Scale_Comparison_03.jpg)
Another comparison of scales. O scale car No. 6559 is, like the
HO car in front of it, unpowered. It does have working ineterior
lights however and as such does have a third rail pick-up roller,
visible if you look under its truck. These cars use the track
system made popular by Lionel in which the third rail is in the center
of the track. On the real thing the third rail is off to the
side. The HO cars operate on a two-rail system just like the vast
majority of other equipment in that scale. In this view, you can
easily see that the O scale car has windows that are all the same
height whereas the HO car doesn't. It's not easy to tell in this
view, but the side-window route signs on the O scale car are also of a
more modern type.
![Model cars with real MetroCard and token](Scale_Comparison_05.jpg)
Here, for a sense of size and scale, the models are pictured with two
items familiar to many New Yorkers- a modern electronic MetroCard and
the last incarnation of the now-extinct subway token. The former
is about the same size as a credit card, though thinner. The
latter is about 20mm in diameter- just smaller than a nickel, for those
familiar with the U.S. currency system.
And finally, here's a link to a picture showing these cars back in
their day- in service on the shuttle at Grand Central, in 1979.
It oughtta look familiar by now: http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?26666
The real thing shows off the type of coupler my models "should"
have. It's also equipped with proper pantographs, safety chains
(hung together here to prevent accidental exit from the train should
the door not be properly locked) and radio antenna (the dark thing
under the "LOCAL" sign on the end). You'll notice also that the
side windows are open for ventilation. The sign above the nearest
door, hanging from the station ceiling, seems to indicate that this
route was called "SS" at the time... Today it's just "S".