BMT PRE-WWII CARS

Here is a list of the subway cars built by and for the old BMT subway. BMT stood for the Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Company which operated all of the lines now called the BMT OR B1 Division of the NYCTA.

There were two main types of cars ordered through the years by the BMT. Most of the cars (950) came to be known as the BMT Standards. The remaining cars were articulated, that is each two car bodies shared one truck at one end.

Like this:

CAR NUMBERS	TYPE	MFGR	YEAR	PHOTO
2000-2099	A	AC&F	1914	BMT Standard
2100-2199	A	AC&F	1915	B Type on Brighton Line
2200-2299	A	AC&F	1916
2300-2399	A	AC&F	1917
2400-2499	A	AC&F	1918
2500-2599	A	AC&F	1919
2600-2699	A	PrSt	1920
2700-2799	A	PrSt	1921
2800-2899	A	PrSt	1922
4000-4044	B	PrSt	1924
4005-4049	AX
6000-6003 ABC	D	PrSt	1925	BMT D Type
6004-6070 ABC	D	PrSt	1927	D Type on Brighton Line
6071-6121 ABC	D	PrSt	1928
7003 A,B,C,B1,A1	MS	PSCo	1934	Green Hornet
7004-7013	MS	StL	1934	BMT Multi
7014-7028	MS	PSCo	1934
7029	MS	Budd	1934	BMT Zephyr
8000 A,B,A1	CC	Clark	1938	BMT Blue Bird
8001-8005 A,B,A1	CC	Clark	1940
2900-2924 2925-2929	SIRT	StStl	1925 1953 (to BMT)	SIRT Cars on BMT

Car Type key:

• A - Standard 67' long single cars. Cars 4000-4049 were built as trailers4045-4049 also had controls at one end.. In later years, the cars were permanently coupled in sets and reclassified as follows:
• B - Three A cars coupled with cabs at outer ends only.
• BT - Motor-Trailer two car set with cabs at outer ends only.
• BT - Motor-motor (after BX below were removed in favor of B types.
• BX - motor-trailer-motor car set with cabs at outer ends only. An eight car train would be made of 2 B or BX sets and one BT set.
• D - Three unit articulated 127' total length. Four of these sets were equivilent to eight A Types.
• MS - Five unit articulated 179' total length.
• Pullman cars made of aluminum, painted green and named "GREEN HORNET".
• Budd cars made of stainless steel and named "Zephyr".
• Clark Equipment Company train based upon PCC trolley car technology, named the "BLUEBIRD".
• SIRT - These cars were purchased by the B&O RR for the Staten Island Rapid Transit. The BMT purchased them in the 1953 when SIRT cut back service and the BMT was short cars.

Manufacturers key:

• AC&F - American Car and Foundry
• Clark - Clark Equipment Company
• PSCo - Pullman Standard Company
• PrSt - Pressed Steel Car Company
• StStl - Standard Steel Car Company

BMT Elevated Lines

In addition to the subway cars above, the BMT had many elevated cars that were used from 1880's to 1969. Like the IRT most of the early cars were pulled by steam engine (this is actually an IRT el train). After 1900 many of the cars were converted to electric operation, but kept their end gates. By the 1930's, many of the cars were enclosed with automatic doors.

Thursday August 17, 2006
Copyright © 2006 by Joseph D. Korman

All photos are from the MTA New York City Transit archives. These GIF files were scanned from offset press prints, thus the quality of the reproduction varies with your monitor and video card capabilities.