NEW CARS FOR THE SUBWAY, OLD ONES FOR THE DEEP

By NEIL GENZLINGER

Why is it that in a program about the construction of brand-spanking-new New York City subway cars, the most satisfying moment comes when we see some old New York City subway cars being hurled into the ocean?

Strange but true. Thursday’s episode of the National Geographic Channel’s “Ultimate Factories” pays a visit to the plants that produce the city’s latest model of subway car, the R160, telling us for almost an hour about all the welding and wiring and safety inspections that go into making the things.

It’s interesting enough, especially if you’re one of those people who were playing with erector sets by the age of 2. But at least for regular users of the subway what’s likely to get the heart really racing comes near the end, when the program takes a brief detour to show what happens to retired subway cars. That’s when we see the gray monstrosities being deep-sixed 20 miles off the Maryland coast to create an artificial reef for marine life.

Watching those cars going under feels like revenge, or vindication, or something, for all those appointments missed because the R and the N — the Rarely and the Never — didn’t show up, or because an indecipherable intercom failed to convey that the E train was going to skip the next 20 stops, or insert your own subway nightmare here.

Anyway, the bulk of the program follows the 90-day construction process that results in an R160. It’s a bit dismaying that the company that makes the cars, Alstom, is French and that the shells are assembled in Lapa, Brazil, but at least we Americans can still manage to do the finish work on our own subway cars, in Hornell, N.Y. Only viewers under a certain age are likely to get to see these sleek machines tossed into the Atlantic: the program says they’re built to last 40 to 50 years.

ULTIMATE FACTORIES
NYC Subway Car

National Geographic Channel, Thursday night at 8, Eastern and Pacific times; 7, Central time.

Michael Hoff and Ashley Adams, series producers; Rena Ferrick, supervising producer; Lauren Williams, producer and writer; Victoria Kirk, supervising writer; Diana J. Brodie, editor; Scott Stender and David Barkan, cinematographers; Christopher Cook, narrator. Produced by Hoff Productions for National Geographic Channel.