BU cars (New York City Subway car)

BU cars is the generic term for BRT elevated gate cars used on predecessor lines of the New York City Subway system. Many of the cars were built by the Jewett Car Company and the Laconia Car Company.

These cars consisted of a variety of equipment used on the BRT and later BMT. Some cars were inherited from steam railroads that became part of the BRT system while others were built new for the BRT as late as 1907. In 1913, the BRT introduced an advanced steel car design for subway service (the AB Standard) and no more BU cars were produced.

The term BU was derived from the Brooklyn Union Elevated Railroad (BUERR) Company, one of the last operating companies of Brooklyn elevated lines before the BRT formed the New York Consolidated Railroad in 1912 to absorb the BUERR and other properties.

Historians disagree as to whether the term "BU" was commonly used before the BMT was purchased by the City of New York in 1940, or whether it was mainly an introduced term to describe the wooden elevated cars of the former private company.

The primary distinguishing feature of BU cars is that they were elevated cars built mostly or substantially of wood, with or without steel frames, where passenger access to the cars was provided by open platforms at both ends of each car. A trainman between each pair of cars manually opened and closed folding gates to admit or bar passengers from entering or leaving.

All gate cars used in BRT elevated service can be described as BUs. This excludes several classes of elevated equipment:

Following their retirement, several were sent to multiple museums, with three preserved by the New York Transit Museum.

Three BU cars that were converted to closed Q-type cars in 1938–39 for BMT service to the 1939 New York World's Fair were converted cosmetically back to BU gate cars in the Coney Island Rapid Transit Car Overhaul Shop for the transit museum. This was done incompletely, however, as the cars retained their 1957 lowered roofs and 1950 lightweight trucks. All of the cars are operational and have been running in several excursions sponsored by the transit museum.

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