March of Dimes Redbird Fantrip

On May 26, 2002, NYCT's Subdivision-C held a special fantrip using 4 R33 single cars and 2 R36 Mainline cars as a "Farewell to the Redbird" excursion trip. The trip left from Grand Central and ended at Times Square about 8 and a half hours later. The webmaster believes there were at least 200 people on the trip. All proceeds were donated to the March of Dimes.

Consist Makeup

The train consisted of the following cars. This was the setup of the train when it was laying over at the Parkchester station for the lunch break.

North End	9318	9532	9533	9333	9345	9334	South End
	R33	R36 ML	R36 ML	R33	R33	R33

Itinterary

The trip began at Grand Central on Shuttle track 1
The train proceeded to the City Hall Station on the Lexington Avenue Local track (9318 at the head)
A stop was made at City Hall for people to take pictures from inside the train
The train then continued to 125th Street on the northbound Lexington Avenue Express track (9318 still at the head)
At 125th Street, the train went onto the Pelham Line on the middle express track.
At Hunts Point Avenue, a stop was made to allow passengers to disembark to take revenue trains along the 6 for photo ops.
The train then continued on the middle track to the Westchester Yard and made two loops around the yard
The train arrived at Parkchester for a one hour lunch stop (9334 at the head)
The train went on the middle express track to Hunts Point Avenue where it stopped to pick up people who took photos of the southbound run
It then proceeded to 86th Street where it relayed on the southbound express track
Train switched to the northbound express track north of 86th Street and continued to 167th Street (9318 at the head)
Another stop was made to allow people to get off and take photos.
The train continued to Burnside Avenue where it stopped to meet the passengers who had gotten off for the photo oppertunity
The train proceeded further north into the Concourse Yard
The train entered Subdivision B-2 and ran south on the D line from Bedford Park Boulevard to 135th Street (9318 still at the head, now facing south)
At 135th Street, the train relayed on track A6, the eastern pocket track between the northbound express and local tracks
Train switched to the northbound express track and ran to the 207th Street Yard (9334 now at the head)
The train continued around the 207th Street loop and onto the flyover to reenter the A Division on the 1 line north of 207th Street
Train continued to 242nd Street
Passengers were allowed off to take revenue trains to access photo ops
Train continued to Dyckman Street (9318 at the head)
Photographers rejoined the trip at Dyckman and proceeded to 137th Street, a discharge point for passengers wanting to take pictures at 125th Street
Train continued to Times Square via the middle and downtown express tracks where the trip ended.

Click here to view photos of the excursion train

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