On 12/23/15, I encountered something that hasn't occurred since 2006 during R160 testing. And I'm mad at myself for not recording or taking pictures because this is a rare thing to catch. After school, I was at Beach 25 Street station on the Far Rockaway bound platform. While waiting for the train, I heard a propulsion that sounded like the R160A propulsion but constantly threw the thought out of my head believing it was just an R46 propulsion. But, once I turned around, I saw it and couldn't believe it! Embarrassingly, I ended up foaming for a while saying things like,"OMG!, Am I Dreaming?,Is This Happening for real?, Did the MTA finally decide to let R160s run on the A Line?
I ran to the front car which was full due to it being the early start of rush hour. When I entered, I stood there and smiled once I heard Kathleen Campion's voice for the announcements. Once the train terminated at Far Rockaway - Mott Avenue, I decided that I should do some rail fanning and stay on it. I didn't care if it was going all the way back to 207 Street, I wanted to ride it because I knew this was going to be a once in a lifetime opportunity until the R211s arrive in 2020. Unfortunately, an announcement at the station said that the train arriving next would be the first one to leave and I overheard some transit crew workers saying that the R160 A Train was actually a C Train that was diverted to Far Rockaway due to an incident that occured at Broadway Junction in which no Far Rockaway trains ran for a certain period of time. I sat down on one of the chairs at the station to see if the train was going Not In Service back to Euclid Avenue but I heard a passenger ask the transit crew if she can get on the R160 since it was something different than the usual R46s on the A Line. He said that the train will probably run as a Shuttle to Euclid Avenue and turn into a C Train. When I heard this, I said to myself," F**K it, I'll take the train to Euclid Avenue then go back home". One thing I noticed as I got on the train was that people only referred to R160s as "The trains on the C". As the train left Mott Avenue and arrived at Beach 25 Street, many of the school kids were also foaming saying things like, "We gonna take this train to Rockaway Blvd " or " Imma go through all the cars" but never actually did. As the train was approaching Euclid Avenue, many passengers were confused on why it was running local and then the conductor said that this is now a C Train to 168 Street and they would need to transfer here for an A Train to Manhattan. I was satisfied with my ride and caught the next Far Rockaway bound train on the other side.
Many people say that the 2 reasons why R160A/B/R143s don't run on the A is because they were only meant to replace 75% of the R32s and R42s, and all of the R38s and R40s and that the new tech's power is too much for the substation at Beach 44 Street to handle. Based on what I've seen, the only problem I've seen were that it appeared that the brakes stalled a bit at Beach 36 Street and Broad Channel. Other than that, I believe new tech trains are capable of running on the A.
I apologize if it looks like I wrote an essay but I just had to share my experience with the people of Bvestation. My question to all of you is if you caught this train as this train ran between 1:00 - 3:00 pm.