What I have here is a hostlers control from an R-46 subway car. It was for operating a consist from the blind end mostly for coupling or maintenance.
It needs a key to activate it. (I have the keys)
The FWD, and REV switch is under that red cover. The toggle is broken off of this one.
The buttons are self explanatory:
Charge
Max Brake
Med Brake
Coast
SER (Series position)
SW (Switching position – you can not run on this for more than a few seconds before the resistors begin to object) – It cannot run in multiple position.
Reset
and DEAD MAN.
Nothing is supposed to work if the DeadMan switch is not held in place, a tiresome task that probably irritated the hech out of the T/O who had to use the thing. On this one the red button seems to be somewhat defective and can catch under the black bezel and thus be held in place. I am told that a matchbook would also hold it in.
These things have mostly been removed from service. If the yard needs to move a train equipped with one of these they usually bring their own unit an plug it in.
The R-46 cars will be the next class of cars to be replaced right after the remaining 32s and 44s, many of those classes are already at the bottom of the ocean.
I’m not sure there was a hostlers’ control for subways…either every car had a regular controls at at least one end if it weren’t a trailer car. There were two, sometimes three, control handles carried by motormen: the break handle, the controller (reverser) handle, and some the throttle handle. The smallest of the three would be the reverser.
Oh, and these cars were dumped off the NJ shore to form and replace a barrier reef.
Only the R-46 cars had hostler controls, and they did have a blind end with no cab there.
Look the LION has the control in his furry little paws, it clearly says MTA on it, and it was given to me by MTA employees. It is a rather unique little item.
Um, no, there are other issues involved over and beyond the value of the metal. Most of the units sunk were carbon steel and not stainless, nonetheless the issue is not the metal, it is the asbestos.
The cost of the asbestos abatement is far more than the value of the metal. The MTA removed all doors windows hatches, trucks and all other appliances that could cause pollution. The cars were then SOLD to the states that wanted them for the construction of reefs. MTA got $400 each for them and a scrapper could not match that. The asbestos presents no problem to marine life which does not breathe the particles as us land creatures might. Asbestos is naturally occurring in the soil in many places in America.
Newer railcars are being scrapped by scrappers, but these are new enough that they would have no asbestos problems, for these the MTA does not need to bear the expense of preparing them for “reefing”.
Some LIRR cars were taken in trade by Bombardier of Canada, and those were transported under Canadian law to Mexico for scrapping there where asbestos abatement rules and costs are different. The MTA as an American company could not sell them for scrapping to Mexico since our laws do not allow the exporting of known risks such as this. When Bombardier took them there was no issue of scrapping, they were only taken in trade for new equipment. Once out of the US, the Canadians could do what they wanted with them.
The cars deposited off the NJ coast were ostensibly for the creation of artificial Reefs for the benefit of SCUBA divers and sports fisherman. This has also been done with a fair amount of military hardware in recent years. retired aircraft, armored
