Subway Nut, leave no (U.S. or Canadian) station unphotographed!

August 8, 2019 9:14 PM

Welcome to SubwayNut.com, a website that is dedicated to rail based transit systems and trains in the United States and Canada, and whose goal is to have a photo essay of every station on every system. A very Web 1.0 site, capturing the sights and sounds of these systems. Sorry, no coverage of Mexico City Metro, the second largest metro system in North America (Wikipedia x2), or any other systems in the west.

Also, despite having images of Chicago transit faircards, SubwayNut has no information on the chip used in the Chicago Card and Chicago Card Plus, which were apparently based in part on the same equipment producing the chips in the ‘90s video game Game Boy (Chicago Now, 2013). The chips were last manufactured in 2006 and CTA [had] drawn on a dwindling stockpile of chips for new and replacement Chicago Cards (CBS Local, Chicago, 2013).

posted by filthy light thief (16 comments total)

Continuing my derailed train of thought: here's a research paper from 2006 (abstract, link to full PDF), which states that "In November 2002, CTA formally launched the Chicago Card, a stored value smart card, followed in January 2004 by the Chicago Card Plus...." Unfortunately, there isn't much more technical detail contained there, and from this Game Boy Autopsy video, focused on the CPU (12 minutes), I'm not seeing anything that looks like it could be squeezed into a transit card.

Still, SubwayNut is charmingly vintage and devoted to their hobby or passion.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:17 PM on August 8, 2019 [2 favorites]

This is so wonderful.
I miss the web of 2005.
Here are my daughter’s train photos.
posted by growabrain at 9:49 PM on August 8, 2019 [2 favorites]

I'm not seeing anything that looks like it could be squeezed into a transit card.

fabricated using the same equipment producing the chips in the ‘90s video game Game Boy means made in the same chip fab, not made from the same components. The Game Boy CPU was a custom Sharp chip, the LR35902- I can believe the Chicago Card was based on another Sharp product.
posted by zamboni at 10:11 PM on August 8, 2019 [2 favorites]

I love these 90s specialist websites. (Giveaway for a MetaFilter: joke).

It's 10+ years out of date for Calgary, Toronto, and probably a bunch of other cities. That just adds to the charm though, with old views not just of stations, but vehicles and the city around them.

Similar sites that still seem to be up:

Kevin's Bus and Rail Page

Oldtrails: Urban Electric Transit

Jon Bell's (Mostly) Rail Transit Pages

And the mother of all subway sites, UrbanRail.net
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 10:43 PM on August 8, 2019 [4 favorites]

Old Woodies
posted by growabrain at 10:49 PM on August 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

TTC stations were so spacious before the rise of the Presto machines!
posted by scruss at 1:39 AM on August 9, 2019

I appreciate this kind of attention to detail and miss this type of site so much. More like this please!

Incidentally: if you're looking for a detailed Chicago L site, chicago-l.org is the only thing you need. It's been going strong for over 20 years and is still updated.
posted by hijinx at 5:52 AM on August 9, 2019 [1 favorite]

Transit Toronto is pretty much the go-to website for transit geekery for me (particularly their extensive photo archive that extends into nearly every page). But for the real Web 1.0 experience, there's the Transit Canada page (on Angelfire!).
posted by giltay at 6:55 AM on August 9, 2019 [1 favorite]

zamboni: "fabricated using the same equipment producing the chips in the ‘90s video game Game Boy" means "made in the same chip fab," not "made from the same components"

Thanks! I figured some MeFite would clarify that for me :)

Bonus "vintage" transit site: CTA Tattler, Seen and heard on the Chicago Transit Authority -- last updated a decade ago, except the CTA News from Google News and CTA Photo Pool on Flickr is till getting automatically updated via those feeds.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:13 AM on August 9, 2019

True best of the web. Thank you!!
posted by dusty potato at 7:31 AM on August 9, 2019

Miles was a Boston-area high-school kid who decided to ride every bus and train line in eastern Massachusetts and visit and rate every single station. He's now in college in Philadelphia and is doing the same with SEPTA.
posted by adamg at 7:46 AM on August 9, 2019 [2 favorites]

This is my kink, thank you
posted by Automocar at 9:17 AM on August 9, 2019

Sad DC Metro is missing - the original stations have a really unusual design, and it's got the second-heaviest usage in the US.
posted by aspersioncast at 9:27 AM on August 9, 2019

Thanks for this. I truly miss the OG Web, the Web 1.0, with all its clunky html and strange tables.
posted by Ahmad Khani at 10:45 AM on August 9, 2019 [1 favorite]

The links for Dallas only have the DFW Airport Rail, and not the actual Dallas subway station which is part of DART Rail which mostly runs at and above grade.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:18 PM on August 9, 2019

Old Car Manual Project's collection of old car brochures, currently numbering over 85,000 images. (Via)
posted by growabrain at 1:02 AM on August 10, 2019 [1 favorite]