22-01-09 PHOTOS: R32 Retirement

At the time of the announced R32 retirement runs I figured that attending one of the holiday season weekends would be sufficient. It was only later that NYCTA announced that The R's 32 would be running on a special express Q/B service between Brighton Park and the Second Ave subway terminal at 96th St that I decided to attend due to the opportunity to return video along the route. My plan was to catch the first departure from Brighton Beach, get video on my first round trip and then figure out the situation from there. As with the R32 Holiday Train I will post still photos first ( mirror ), followed by videos.

NJT was once again the most practical way to get to the city with split level #7008 seen here pulling into Hamilton.

Along with the Penn Station support building, the Hotel Pennsylvania can be considered part of the original Penn Station complex. Unfortunately I've been told that it has become very run down inside and is slated for redevelopment into something that will totally not raise the cost of visiting the city.

At 34th St Herald Sq I caught an R46 Q Brighton Local to Brighton Beach. Despite the diamond the Q was all local on weekdays with (B) service suspended due to Covid. Seeing as i started riding the NYCS prior to 2001, it is hard for me to related to the Q being something other than an orange bulleted Brighton express.

There was already a crowd at Brighton Beach, but the only thing moving were Q trains of both the R46 and R68 variety.

At some point before departure the R32 train did finally appear in the decorations it had worn for the holiday trips still applied to #3894 on the south end.

At the other end of the train, R32's #3360 and #3361 had been further restored to their 1964 appearance with blue painted doors and pantograph gates, TA meatball logos and roll signs, and a banner similar to the one worn by the first train of R32's on the occasion of the entry into service. Even the H2C couplers had been painted.

Of course all of the best NYCTA characters were in attendance! 

Because the NYCTA was doing the stupid Covid theatre again people were unable to get up close to the front and rear windows. However, anticipating this I was able to employ my GoPro wand to achieve the desired shot. I positioned myself at the rear facing window in car #3894 and stayed in that position all the way to 96th St where it then became the front facing window.

After my initial round trip I caught an R68 Q local train to Kings Highway in order to get video of the R32 train running on the Brighton Line.

I randomly met up with Fred G and rode with him to 72nd St on the 2nd Ave Line planning another set piece photo at that station. Unfortunately the R32's stopped well short of the end of the platform and I had to settle for a photo of this earlier arriving R68 Q train.

As it was getting close to 2pm and I had to get back to Hamilton and then back to Baltimore I decided to call it a day at 34th St-Herald Sq with this parting shot of #3894.

Well I hope you enjoyed the photos. Check back for the video post covering the complete railfan window round trip as well as some other videos.