BU cars (New York City Subway car) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

BU cars is the generic term for BRT elevated gate cars used on predecessor lines of the New York City Subway

New York City Subway

The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the City of New York and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, a subsidiary agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and also known as MTA New York City Transit...

system.

Background

These cars consisted of a variety of equipment used on the BRT and later BMT. Some cars were inherited from steam railroad

Steam railroad

Steam railroad is a term used in the United States to distinguish conventional heavy railroads from street railways, interurban streetcar lines, and other light railways usually dedicated primarily to passenger transport....

s that became part of the BRT system while others were built new for the BRT as late as 1907. In 1913, the BRT introduced an advanced steel

Steel

Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...

car design for subway

Rapid transit

A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...

service (the AB Standard

AB Standard (New York City Subway car)

The AB Standard is a New York City Subway car class built from 1914-1924. It ran under the operation of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company and its successors, which included the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation , the NYC Board of Transportation, and the New York City Transit Authority .In...

) and no more BU cars were produced.

The term BU was derived from the Brooklyn Union Elevated Railroad (BUERR) Company, one of the last operating companies of Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

elevated lines before the BRT formed the New York Consolidated Railroad in 1912 to absorb the BUERR and other properties.

Historians disagree as to whether the term "BU" was commonly used before the BMT was purchased by the City of New York

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

in 1940, or whether it was mainly an introduced term to describe the wooden elevated cars of the former private company.

Which BRT/BMT elevated cars were "BUs"?

The primary distinguishing feature of BU cars is that they were elevated cars built mostly or substantially of wood, with or without steel frames, where passenger access to the cars was provided by open platforms at both ends of each car. A trainman between each pair of cars manually opened and closed folding gates to admit or bar passengers from entering or leaving.

It is generally agreed that all gate cars used in BRT elevated service can be described as BUs. This excludes several classes of elevated equipment:

Steam coaches of companies preceding the BUERR that were never converted to, and used in, regular BUERR or BRT elevated service;
Steam excursion coaches of the former Sea Beach Railway
BMT Sea Beach Line
The BMT Sea Beach Line is a rapid transit line of the BMT division of the New York City Subway, connecting the BMT Fourth Avenue Line subway at 59th Street via a four-track wide open cut to Coney Island in Brooklyn...

that were acquired by the BRT
Brooklyn Rapid Transit
The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company was a public transit holding company formed in 1896 to acquire and consolidate lines in Brooklyn and Queens, New York City, United States. It was a prominent corporation and industry leader using the single-letter symbol B on the New York Stock Exchange...

("3200 class") but not used in elevated service and numbered as part of the streetcar department;
Former BU cars (the C-type
C-type (New York City Subway car)
The C-type of New York City Subway cars was a series of elevated cars, rebuilt in the shops of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company in 1923–1925 from former BU cars. Each C-type unit contained 3 cars semi-permanently coupled to form an operating unit...

s and Q-types
Q-type Queens car (New York City Subway car)
The Q-Type was a New York City Subway car rebuilt in 1938 by the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation for elevated railway service to the 1939 New York World's Fair from BU cars in the 1200 and 1400 series, elevated stock originally built in 1903 and 1907.After BMT service on the joint IRT-BMT...

) that were converted into closed cars and the gates replaced by automatically operated subway-style sliding doors.

BUs in the New York Transit Museum fleet

Three BU cars that were converted to closed Q-type

Q-type Queens car (New York City Subway car)

The Q-Type was a New York City Subway car rebuilt in 1938 by the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation for elevated railway service to the 1939 New York World's Fair from BU cars in the 1200 and 1400 series, elevated stock originally built in 1903 and 1907.After BMT service on the joint IRT-BMT...

cars in 1938 and 1939 for BMT service to the 1939 New York World's Fair

1939 New York World's Fair

The 1939–40 New York World's Fair, which covered the of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park , was the second largest American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people...

were converted back to BU gate cars in the Coney Island Rapid Transit Car Overhaul Shop for the transit museum. All of the cars are operational.

These cars are the oldest operational members of the New York Transit Museum

New York Transit Museum

The New York Transit Museum is a museum which displays historical artifacts of the New York City Subway, bus, commuter rail, and bridge and tunnel systems; it is located in a decommissioned Court Street subway station in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of New York City...

fleet. They are made of wood with steel frames and date from 1903 and 1907. Those built in 1907 were the last BU cars ever built. They are occasionally used on excursions. However, when the excursion goes through underground subway

Rapid transit

tunnels, they must be towed by steel cars. New York City protocol forbids use of these wooden cars in tunnels with passengers due to the safety risk posed by such, and thus non-employees must ride only in the accompanying steel cars during the tunnel portions of the trip.

The three museum BUs are currently numbered and coupled as 1407-1273-1404. They were rebuilt from Q-type unit 1622A-B-C in the late 1970s. As a Q-type in the 1970s 1622A-B-C had been rehabilitated and repainted in the original colors used for the 1939-40 World's Fair, blue and orange, which are also the colors of the City of New York

New York City

. Many other cars survive around the country, particularly at Shore Line Trolley Museum.

**Background of NYC Transit Museum BU cars**
Current Numbers	1407	1273	1404
1970 numbers	1622A	1622B	1622C
1957 numbers	1622A	1622B	1603C
1937 numbers	1407	1273	1404
Body builder	Jewett	Laconia	Jewett
Frame builder	Pressed Steel	Pressed Steel	Pressed Steel
Build Date	1907	1903	1907

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