New role for NY Subway car
FORMER New York Subway Car No. 1144 has been moved to a prominent position at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre (BRC) and will be refurbished for use as a visitor coffee shop. The vehicle is claimed to be the only NY Subway car located outside of the United States. It had previously been hidden away at the Quainton site until it was lifted out and moved by crane on June 17. No. 1144 was built by the American Car & Foundry in 1935 for use between 8th Avenue and Fulton, which became the ‘A’ line of the New York mass transit system. It has driving cabs at both ends, which aided flexibility but took up valuable passenger space. The car was withdrawn for scrapping around 1976 but bought by a brewery in Stockton-on-Tees and shipped to Britain for conversion into an American-style diner. When Whitbread took over the brewery several years later, No. 1144 was donated to the BRC and it arrived there in January 1991. It was initially used for visitor refreshments, but after the opening of the Rewley Road Visitor Centre in the early 2000s, it was relegated to volunteer use and hidden out of sight.