Redbird trains
family of New York City subway cars
The Redbird trains were a family of eight New York City Subway train models so-nicknamed because of their red paint scheme. The Redbirds totaled 1,410 cars of the following types on the A Division lines: R26, R28, R29, R33, R33S, and R36. There were also 550 cars on the B Division lines: R27 and R30/A, making a grand total of 1,960 cars built. All were built by the American Car and Foundry Company and the St. Louis Car Company.
These cars were painted a deep red to combat graffiti, which had become a major problem in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The color was referred to as "Gunn Red" or "Broad Street Red" in honor of its originator David L. Gunn, the former SEPTA General Manager who became President of the New York City Transit Authority during this period. Initially entering service in various colors, these cars received the new paint scheme between 1984 and 1989. Sixteen R17s were also given this paint scheme in 1985 and 1986, but were retired by 1988, well before the name "Redbird" caught on. Today, repurposed Redbird cars serve as garbage trains, rail adhesion cars, or rider cars on locomotive-hauled work trains, while others have been preserved by various museums.
“Redbird trains” enters the record as family of New York City subway cars. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Redbird, trains and family can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7305475. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1984, 1989, 1985 and 1986.
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This entry incorporates text from “Redbird trains” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.