Hi:
I purchased a 4 car set and a 2 car set of the R40's. when MTH released them for the first time around 2010. Do you know if this year is correct? It might have been earlier then that.
With all of the other MTH subway sets that I purchased I wanted to duplicate the number of cars that ran in each train set in the subway system so I purchased two 4 car sets and one 2 car sets to get a 10 car set. The exception being the BMT standards which I purchased 2 three car sets powered and 1 three car set unpowered to get a 9 car set which is one more car then the 8 car sets that actually ran in each set. With the R-142's I purchase 2 five car sets powered to get a 10 car set.
I remember when the R40's were put into service in 1968. They were something to see. Shortly after they were put into service the end doors were locked due to too much space outside between the car sets until they installed additional metal bars to fill in most of the space between the car sets. I rode then on the N line where they last ran before they are retired from service in 2008 I believe that was the year and then they were dumped in the Atlantic Ocean to help form reefs for the water creatures. One 2 car set was saved for the transit museum and they are run in a set of cars built from the 1940's to the 1960s that Bill Wall who is in charge of the transit museum trips has named "The Train Of Many Metals". Raymond Lowey and crew who designed these cars may have overdone it somewhat but it's all history now.
Ed Gerson
Along The New Haven Line Of Metro-North And Amtrak in Westchester County, NY.
