New York City's R36 Subway cars were first constructed in 1964 by the St. Louis Car Company for the IRT division of the New York City subway system and are most famously remembered for their colorful World's Fair paint scheme that hauled visitors to the 1964 fair on IRT's Flushing Line. The 1964 fair marked the third time it was held in New York City and occupied nearly a square mile of land in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
The World's Fair cars differed slightly from the R36 ML (for main line) cars with their distinct large picture windows. More common drop-sash side windows were found on both the R33ML and R36ML cars all of which ran for many years on the IRT main lines running on Broadway to Seventh Avenue as well as Lexington Avenue, mainly on the 1 and 3 trains. After completing overhauls in 1985, the R36 cars ran on the 6 train until about 2001 when they were replaced by the R142A cars.
With the arrival of the R142As on the 6 train, the R36MLs were transferred over to the 7 train before all but one pair were eventually scrapped. That last pair, numbers 9542-9543, ran on the 7 until May 2003 before retiring in 2004 at the New York Transit Museum.
The RailKing R36 cars feature transit stop simulation available only from M.T.H. Designed specifically for our municipal transit cars, the unique Proto-Sound 3.0 transit program features Station Stop Proto-Effects, allowing you to program the train to stop automatically at designated station stops, even in Conventional Mode. When configured to run on automatic, the R36 stops itself at locations you define and calls out station names that you select in advance; the train essentially runs itself. And when you program the R36 for an out-and-back route, it even reverses itself and heads back downtown when it reaches the end of the line - stopping along the way at each station to broadcast the name of the stop and the hustle and bustle of passengers coming and going.
For more information on the R36 and the entire New York City transit system, visit www.nycsubway.org
