Subway time machine

November 19, 2017 2:29 PM

Around this time of the year, the New York subway system offers rides on its "Holiday Nostalgia" train, which consists of eight restored cars from the 1930s, complete with vintage subway advertising and riders who show up in appropriate costumes. Lots of pictures. Transit Museum info page. More pictures! Video! Pix and video at the late Gothamist.
posted by beagle (19 comments total)

The article says these trains ran thru the seventies. I first visited New York in the early eighties. March or April 1981, I think. I could swear I rode on very similar trains then. The only difference being that the ones I rode on were covered with graffiti and I don't remember seeing upholstered seats.
posted by marsha56 at 3:15 PM on November 19, 2017

i can't believe you didn't title this thread Hot Sub Time Machine
posted by poffin boffin at 3:50 PM on November 19, 2017 [18 favorites]

Back in the early '40s you were allowed to stand at the front window of the first car. I loved it. I would pretend I was the engineer (who was in a tiny little control cubby next to me) driving the train.
posted by notreally at 3:53 PM on November 19, 2017 [7 favorites]

To complete the nostalgia trip, it also runs reliably.
posted by Stonestock Relentless at 4:02 PM on November 19, 2017 [7 favorites]

To complete the nostalgia trip, it also runs reliably.

Ah yes, the time from 1998-1999 when the trains ran reliably, a true golden age
posted by Automocar at 4:04 PM on November 19, 2017 [1 favorite]

Back in the early '40s you were allowed to stand at the front window of the first car.

You still can. I think I was on the JZ, but it was sometime in the last year that I was looking out the front of the train.
posted by hoyland at 4:22 PM on November 19, 2017 [2 favorites]

I guess I just assumed that one of these showed up whenever The Whelk needed to go somewhere.
posted by sysinfo at 5:17 PM on November 19, 2017 [5 favorites]

In Boston our nostalgia train runs year round and is called the Red Line.

Some of those cars are approaching 50 years old. And the streetcars on the Mattapan extension have been in continuous service since they were built in the 1940s.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 5:23 PM on November 19, 2017 [5 favorites]

To be fair, those PCC streetcars on the Mattapan line are nigh indestructible and could probably go on for another seventy years. And the 1500s on the Red Line proper look like they're in way better shape than the much younger rolling stock on the Orange Line.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 5:34 PM on November 19, 2017

Some of those cars are approaching 50 years old.

The oldest subway cars in New York are from 1964 and 1965. They were due to be replaced this year, but they only started running the first trains with the trial batch of replacement cars today. BART is still running some of its original rolling stock from the late 1960s (granted, BART is kind of a special case because the gauge is unusual). The oldest trains on the London Underground are from 1972.
posted by hoyland at 5:41 PM on November 19, 2017 [1 favorite]

There are two old Boston trolleys locked away behind a fence at the Boylston station. Once, the guy who ran the MBTA publicly mused about opening them to the public and using a nearby abandoned trolley tunnel as some sort of public exhibition or performance area, but then he quit and took a job trying to get the Olympics for Boston, with about the same results.
posted by adamg at 6:00 PM on November 19, 2017

I was curious. The R32s in New York appear to be the oldest subway cars in use in the world. Buenos Aires took some cars from 1913 out of service in 2013, which were previously the oldest cars in service. San Francisco has some streetcars from the 19th century, but that doesn't really count, since they're intentionally running vintage streetcars (and I don't think they've been in continuous service either).
posted by hoyland at 7:49 PM on November 19, 2017

Timely and relevant:

How Politics and Bad Decisions Starved New York’s Subways
Disruptions and delays have roiled the system this year. But the crisis was long in the making, fueled by a litany of errors, a Times investigation shows.

posted by monospace at 8:55 PM on November 19, 2017 [1 favorite]

They may have gone out of service since, but as recently as a year or two ago I rode on a wooden trolley car with a manufacturing date of Taisho 2. Had to check my imperial dates twice to be sure that it was really NINETEEN-TWELVE. Beautiful workmanship.
posted by huimangm at 12:16 AM on November 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

I actually really like the R32s. I love that you can stand at the front (though I am sure the drivers like having more space ...) and they have pretty pleasant configurations. I was sad when they decommissioned all the Redbirds, but I will have a party the day the last R46 runs. Locked doors between cars (part of the reason that stalled F this summer was so intolerable) and seating configurations that leave two not-terrible out of five — ugh.
posted by dame at 6:00 AM on November 20, 2017

*Swoons*

My partner and I visited the Transit Museum in Brooklyn when we spent a week in NYC (Manhattan and Brooklyn, as tourists) in June and it was adorable; one of our best parts of our week!

I don't think it was mentioned in a couple of the links, but these trains are stored at the Museum during the rest of the year and you can walk through them (there's at least 5-6 different iterations of the subway car throughout the 20th century) on a disused track inside the museum, as far as the eye can see! In addition to walking through these cars, there's a couple rooms devoted to subway PSAs and advertisements, several walk-through exhibits on the construction of subways, and the responses following 9/11 and Sandy. You can easily spend 2 hours.

It was pretty low-cost (less than $15/person) and really provided the social and historic context of public transportation throughout New York City. It's also suitable for kiddos as well.


DAMN IT, WHY CAN'T MY TOWN'S PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM HAVE THIS!?

Even recognizing the faults/disadvantages of the city and MTA managing public transit and the host of the other disadvantages of living in NYC, as someone living in a smaller city, I wish we'd have something like this in my city (or located within the local history museum!) but NYC is large enough where they can amass resources, interest (and to be sure, enough benefactors) so that these can be preserved and open for the public.
posted by fizzix at 7:25 AM on November 20, 2017

I'd like to take the subway time machine back 10 years, when the subway ran much better.
posted by benbenson at 11:37 AM on November 20, 2017

I had a ball riding on this last year, and you could tell that all the conductors on the train were really enjoying themselves too (I believe there were two in each car). A couple of my favorite events in NYC in the last few years have been the opening of the new stations, and all of the transit nerds (like me) who go and explore them on the first day.
Honest to god, I got a tear in my eye the first time I rode into 34th st/Hudson yards with 6 other people in the car with me, all of whom were nattering about their favorite train model.
We all love to hate on the MTA (living on the 7 train requires daily deep-breathing exercises), but it's just SO DAMN COOL to see both the history, and the future of the subway system - and enjoy the sense of community with the other nerds who also love it.
posted by aloiv2 at 1:10 PM on November 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

This is really neat. I'm going to have to find an excuse to visit on Sunday in order to ride one of these. The ads are a particularly nice touch.

It puts the Chicago "holiday train" - which is an otherwise typical train with plastic decorations and and some lights - to shame.

But then, this special event would just be a typical day for people going to work on the San Francisco F line. So, relax, neighbors. . . at least we're not second this time.
posted by eotvos at 2:01 PM on November 20, 2017