After being retired, most R29s were sunk into the ocean as artificial reefs, but two cars have survived.

The R29s are very similar to appearance to the R26s and R28s, with the exceptions that they were built by a different company and permanently paired with link bars (instead of couplers).

They were the first subway cars to feature a bright red paint scheme since the R17s.

[5] During rebuilding by Morrison–Knudsen at Hornell, New York, from 1985 to 1987, the R29s were repainted into Redbirds with a deep maroon red body, black front bonnets and anti-climbers, and a silver roof.

A year later, in February 1967, Westinghouse cars 8570–8599 were reassigned to the 6 being displaced by R12s 5707–5729 coming back from work service.

From September to November 1983, GE cars 8734–8735 and 8804–8805 were assigned to the 7 to fill in for the R33Ss and World's Fair R36s while they were being rebuilt.

[7][8] By 1982, all R29s received air conditioning as part of a retrofitting program to replace the cars' original Axiflow ceiling fans.

By June 2, 1986, as more R62As entered service on the 1, the remaining 26 Westinghouse cars assigned to the 1 were displaced to the 3.

[10][11] After rebuilding, all General Electric R29s were assigned exclusively to the 2 until May 1995, when all of the cars were moved to the 5 to improve fleet reliability.

In 1996, New York City Transit Authority announced their plans to phase out the Redbirds with the R142 and R142A fleets.

The last train, consisting of pairs 8708–8709, 8716–8717, 8718–8719, 8784–8785, and 8786–8787, made their final trip on the 5 on October 24, 2002.

[16] After retirement, all but one pair was stripped of all parts and sunk into the Atlantic Ocean to create artificial reefs.