Sam Denby and Amy Muller of Half as Interesting explored the different types of non-passenger trains that run on the tracks of the New York City subway system (MTA).
The idea that there are non-passenger trains on  the subway is only weird until you think about it for a couple seconds.
Most of these trains are used to maintain and clear the tracks of debris, water, and snow. These particular trains include the Track Geometry Car, the crane car, the VakTrak, snow removal cars, and pump cars.
If you want to take care of the subway, of course you don’t want to haul gear around the roads, get it down through the  stations somehow, then back up after. Better to make trains that can zip station to station and  do the job themselves. To that end, a lot of the non-passenger trains in the MTA’s rolling stock do rail maintenance.
There are other cars that transport garbage, materials, and once upon a time, even money.
One car would hold the money, the other would hold twelve armed MTA agents and a supervisor. They’d go station-to-station collecting revenue, then  bring it all to the Jay Street station—close to   where many of the lines meet—take it through this gate, and up to a money room. But alas, in 2006, they changed to armored cars and a money room  in Maspeth, and with the Metrocard phase-out, they soon won’t even need those.
Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.
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