R11/R34 (New York City Subway car)

Otto Kuhler's patent of subway car filed in 1947 (copied by R11)

On June 19, 1947, the city announced the details of the $1,158,000 R11 subway car order. The equipment in the subway car was installed by Westinghouse Electric.[1]

The full size of the R11 contract was 400 new subway cars, intended to provide service on the planned Second Avenue Subway. The subway, which was then slated to open in the 1950s, had been repeatedly delayed throughout its history, and the 10 cars ordered were to serve as the newest technology prototype test train available at the time. However, the remainder of the cars were never built due to the halt of construction on Second Avenue shortly thereafter.[2] The subway itself opened in 2017, seventy years after the R11 was first announced.[3]

The R11s originally used storm doors that were similar to those used in later SMEE cars, but by the early 1950s, those storm doors were modified to feature circular windows similar to those on the R15, R16, and R17 cars.[1]

The ten R11s were overhauled in 1965 at the Transit Authority's own Coney Island Complex under contract R34. During the rebuild, the drum brakes were replaced with disk brakes, new fans were installed, and the middle stanchions were removed to improve passenger flow. The rebuild also included modifications that allowed the cars to operate in consists with other SMEE (contracts R10 through R42) cars.

Despite the overhaul, maintenance for the cars proved time-consuming and difficult by the 1970s, as special skills and components were needed to keep the cars in working order. Because there were only ten R11s, the cars were retired from service in 1977 following a yard accident that wrecked car 8016. By 1980, all cars, except 8013, were scrapped.

Car 8013 has been preserved by the New York Transit Museum. It was also damaged in the 1977 yard accident, but was repaired before being sent to the museum. The car was restored to operating status in 2013–2014 and has been operating on New York City Transit Museum-sponsored excursions since August 2014, specifically on the Train of Many Metals (TOMM). On July 30, 2017, the car made its first-ever run on the Second Avenue Subway with the TOMM consist, making a full round trip along the IND Second Avenue Line, BMT Broadway Line, and BMT Brighton Line between 96th Street and Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue.