R38 (New York City Subway car)

R38
An R38 train on the C at Kingston–Throop Avenues
Interior of an R38 car
In service	1966–2009
Manufacturer	St. Louis Car Company
Built at	St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Constructed	1966–1967
Entered service	August 23, 1966
Refurbished	1987–1988[1]
Scrapped	2008–2009
Number built	200
Number preserved	2
Number scrapped	198
Successor	R160
Formation	Married Pairs
Fleet numbers	3950–4149
Capacity	50 (seated)
Operators	New York City Subway
Specifications
Car body construction	Carbon steel body stainless steel skin.
Car length	60 ft (18.29 m)
Width	10 ft (3.05 m)
Height	12.08 ft (3.68 m)
Platform height	3.76 ft (1.15 m)
Doors	8 sets of 45 inch wide side doors per car
Maximum speed	55 mph (89 km/h)
Weight	77,420 lb (35,117 kg)
Traction system	General Electric SCM 17KG192AE2/H7 propulsion system
Traction motors	General Electric 1257E1
Power output	115 hp (86 kW) per axle
Braking system(s)	Westinghouse Air Brake Company E2 "SMEE" Braking System, American Steel Foundries simplex unit cylinder clasp (tread) brake
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge

The R38 was a New York City Subway car model built by the St. Louis Car Company from 1966 to 1967 for the IND/BMT B Division. Two hundred were built in married pairs. In addition, the R38s were built to supply extra trains for service changes resulting from the 1967 opening of the Chrystie Street Connection. Moreover, the R38 was the first subway car fleet to have air conditioning installed.

The first R38s entered service on August 23, 1966. In 1987–1988,^[2] all R38s were rebuilt by General Electric.^[2] The R160 order replaced the entire fleet of R38s, the last of which ran on March 18, 2009. After retirement, all cars but one pair, which is preserved by the New York Transit Museum, were stripped and sunken as artificial reefs.