Last Saturday we headed downtown to ride the Holiday subway train. At the NYC Transit Museum, they maintain many old/vintage subway cars that you can see and climb aboard anytime you visit the museum. But at Christmas time, they actually bring the cars out into service to a select number of stations on a few Saturdays. (See
this link for all the information if you're interested). We were excited to check it out and it proved to be a very fun trip! We rode the regular ol' subway down to 2nd Ave (on the F/M line) and waited patiently for the Holiday train & not-so-patiently for Aunt Allie to arrive. Then we spent some time exploring the train as it sat in the station. Then the conductor yelled "All Aboard!" and so we climbed aboard. At each station the conductor and other train employees (in each car) would shout out the station we had arrived at and what the next station would be and then yelled "All Aboard!" again before closing the doors. It finally occurred to me that these old cars would not have an intercom system like we do today, or a dinging bell to warn of closing doors. It was such a fun trip "back in time" experiencing the subways as my parents, grandparents and great-grandparents did. When we got to Rockefeller Center where we intended to get off, the girls (& the adults, too, quite frankly) were insistent that we ride it a while longer. So we ended up riding all the way to Queens Village where we picked it up for the return trip to Manhattan. One thing that made it so enjoyable was that every single person on the train had a smile on their face and there was just a cheerful feeling in the air. Most people were there because they intended to be and because they love trains. The conductor and the engineer and all the employees were so nice & friendly. They left all the doors between the cars open, so there was a cool breeze blowing through and you could see all the way down the train. We changed cars a lot, as each car was a different model & had its own charm. The ride was loud & bumpy. But it was awesome. This will definitely be a Christmastime tradition for us as long as we live in/near the city.
No air conditioning in these cars! Just some ceiling fans & open windows.
Here are the approximate arrival times of the train in each station. This schedule is for A train.
Such a bumpy ride! Can't hold the camera steady!
LOVE the vintage advertisements for everything from the city destinations to national products to war bonds to who will be Miss Subways?!
The conductor used to stand between the cars! Nowadays the conductor can be found inside a designated compartment in one of the center cars of the train. In these older subway cars, the doors were operated by levers on the outside of the cars at about the shoulder height of this conductor.
ETA: I received an email from my grandmother reminiscing about riding the subway years ago in NY. I loved what she said so much, I had to include it here: "
I remember riding in all of
those kinds of subway cars.....different style seat coverings, handle
grips, advertisements.......the whole nine yards. I can still remember how
it felt to be standing, hanging on a strap, in summer with the perspiration
dripping down inside my clothing and on my forehead with only fans and slightly
opened windows to create a breeze. New Yorkers are really a breed
apart."
