R33S (New York City Subway car)

R33S
R33S car 9306, in its original colors, leads the Train of Many Colors through 40 Street–Lowery St on a <7> express run to Mets–Willets Point.
Interior of R33S car 9306
In service	1963–2003
Manufacturer	St. Louis Car Company
Built at	St. Louis, Missouri, United States
Constructed	1963
Entered service	1963
Refurbished	1985
Scrapped	2001 (9321) 2010 (9339) 2013 (several cars)
Number built	40
Number in service	(23 in work service)
Number preserved	6
Number scrapped	10
Successor	R142 and R142A
Formation	Single unit cars
Fleet numbers	9306–9345
Capacity	44 (seated)
Operators	New York City Subway
Specifications
Car body construction	LAHT (Low Alloy High Tensile) steel
Car length	51.04 feet (15.56 m)
Width	8.75 feet (2,667 mm)
Height	11.86 feet (3,615 mm)
Doors	6 sets of 50 inch wide side doors per car
Weight	75,122 lb (34,075 kg) (pre-rebuild)
Traction system	Westinghouse XCA248E with Westinghouse (WH) 1447C
Auxiliaries	Motor-generator and battery set (WH YX304E)
Electric system(s)	600 V DC Third rail
Current collector(s)	Contact shoe
Braking system(s)	WABCO, "SMEE" (electrodynamic)
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge

The R33S^[1] (also known as R33 World's Fair or R33WF) was a New York City Subway car that was built by St. Louis Car Company in 1963 for the IRT A Division. They were purchased for service on the IRT Flushing Line (7 and <7> trains), which was the closest line to the 1964 New York World's Fair. A total of 40 cars were built, arranged as single cars. While in regular service, each R33S was coupled to five two-car consists of R36 cars to make 11-car trains for the 7 and <7> routes.

The R33S fleet entered service on September 26, 1963, and was originally painted in a light blue turquoise "Bluebird" scheme. The fleet was overhauled in the mid-1980s, during which the cars were painted red, leading to the nickname "Redbirds". The R33S fleet was replaced in the early 2000s with the delivery of the R142 and R142A cars, with the last train of R33S and R36s running on November 3, 2003. After being retired, some R33S cars were preserved, but most were kept for work service; many of the work cars were scrapped in the 2010s.