If you’re looking to go to the victory parade for the Yankees tomorrow, Friday November 6th, Metro North will be running a few extra trains on both the Harlem and Hudson Lines. Extra cars will be added to trains on the New Haven Line.

The ticker-tape parade will begin on Broadway at Battery Place at 11 AM and continue uptown along the “Canyon” to Chambers Street, ending at 12:30 PM. At 1PM a ceremony will be held at City Hall Plaza, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg will present the Bronx Bombers with the Keys to the City. The ceremony will end at 2:30 PM.

The extra train on the Harlem Line will make the following stops:
Southeast: 8:30 AM
Brewster: 8:33 AM
Goldens Bridge: 8:43 AM
Katonah: 8:47 AM
Mount Kisco: 8:53 AM
Chappaqua: 8:59 AM
North White Plains: 9:10 AM
White Plains: 9:14 AM
Harlem-125th St: 9:37 AM
Grand Central: 9:48 AM

From Grand Central, you can take the subway, 4 or 5 train downtown to any of the following stations:
Fulton Street, Wall Street, Bowling Green or Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall. Additional subway and bus information can be found here.

Also, for anyone who rides the train in the Wassaic area, trains will not be running this weekend due to bridge work, November 7th and 8th. Instead, buses will ferry riders down to Southeast. These buses will follow the normal train schedule.

Riding the subway on Halloween is always interesting. Crazy people running around with fake blood pouring down their faces, and females wearing costumes that are more skin than clothes. Bert and Ernie were sighted in Grand Central, as well as many child train conductors, princesses, power rangers and firefighters. And even a rather cute Teletubby.

Anyways, have a Happy Halloween everyone, and enjoy some pictures from the Christmas Carol Train Tour in Grand Central. Remember, tomorrow is your last chance to see the train. Grand Central is the final stop in this tour across the country.

The New York Lottery has come up with this new game: Sweet Million. They’ve been advertising like crazy in trains and stations, but I don’t think I really mind. The kitties and puppies and bunnies are so cuuute! The bunny poster is up in my Metro North train, and apparently the Times Square subway station is covered everywhere with ads for it. Large posters on the walls, backlit posters, ads covering the stairs, and ads wrapped around pillars… most of which are in the vicinity of the S train / Shuttle to Grand Central.

It may be the “easiest way to win a million with a dollar” but with 1:3,838,380 odds, “easy” is still pretty damn hard. Hell even I considered purchasing one of these tickets… and I usually think of the lottery as a tax for the stupid people. I am very well aware how ads influence me.

Anyways, enjoy some cuteness. And uhh… maybe buy a lotto ticket. If you do win a million, split it with me?

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So this weekend was pretty interesting… and rather busy. I was in the city both Saturday and Sunday, and thankfully at least one of the days wasn’t terrible weather-wise. Saturday started out with me, rather embarrassingly, getting chased by a security guard at the Nintendo Store. When he finally caught up with me, he demanded, “Where are your parents?” Apparently he thought I looked around 15 years of age, and people under 18 need to have a parent present. Of course this has never been a problem every other darn time I’ve been at the store… but I suppose the guard did feel like an ass when I told him that I’m actually turning 25 next week. All of my older friends tell me I should be enjoying this… but getting asked if I want a kids’ menu, asked if I am here visiting my parents on my first day at a new job, and such does tend to be rather annoying.

Thankfully, that event was not the highlight of the weekend. I had a pretty awesome time today at the Transit Museum’s Bus Festival, and the Atlantic Antic. Honestly before today I was unaware what the Atlantic Antic even was, and I must say I was totally surprised about how massive it was… and the amazing amount of people that were there. And the bus festival itself certainly had a major turnout of people, and the weather was great for it.

I suppose it took a little longer to get down there than I had originally anticipated, with delightful weekend subway service changes, but it wasn’t too bad.

Though apparently other people were less than thrilled

About a block from the museum the road was closed off to traffic, and the museum’s bus fleet was parked along both sides of the street. There were old buses, as well as more current versions. There was a tent for children to make and decorate their own little buses, and a table on which they could drive their creations. I swear I don’t think I’ve seen quite so many “mini-railfans” all in one place before… A child, who couldn’t have been more than five years old, pushed his bus/train while announcing, “This is a Brooklyn-bound Two Train! Stand clear of the closing doors!” I couldn’t help but laugh at that.

All in all I think it was a pretty great day, and though I probably could write a lot more, I should be sleeping and not blogging… back to work tomorrow! Anyways, enjoy a bunch of pictures that I took today…

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Yesterday evening was the reception / opening at the New York Transit Museum for the new exhibit, The Last Day of the Myrtle Avenue El. The majority of the photographs were taken by artist Theresa King, however her artistic pieces are supplemented by historical accounts and photography, as well as signage from the El.

Several people spoke at the reception, including the artist herself. She said that her motive for taking the pictures that final day was because she loved trains. I can certainly understand that myself… if I didn’t like trains I don’t think I would be writing a blog like this. Someone, I don’t recall who, also wondered whether the young people today would look back on the trains today in the same nostalgic sentiment that they look back at the Myrtle Avenue El. From my personal experience, I think so. Ever since I was a child I rode on the Harlem Line, though of course it wasn’t until more recently that I rode it regularly to commute to work. (This month marks the end of my first year of regularly commuting by train) Maybe this is a sort of odd observation, but I don’t really adore the M7′s as much as I do the older M3′s. There is just something about the cold roboticness of the voice announcing the stops, to the high seat backs that allow you to slip into anonymity that I don’t really enjoy quite so much. On the M3, with the lower seat backs, you can see the people riding in the car. When you ride regularly you see the other regulars in the other seats, and give them a little smile. And some you even have conversations with…

Well that certainly got a tad off topic. Last night I was only briefly able to talk with the artist, and I introduced myself, but she was quite busy talking with some other people. Had I been able to talk to her, I think I would have asked about her preference for shooting photographs right now. The photos from the exhibit were taken in 1969, and obviously photographic technology has significantly improved since then. Now the majority of people, including myself, shoot digitally. The colors and graininess of the photographs taken by King are said to be a limitation of the film available at the time, but it is partially those colors and grain that heighten the nostalgic effect. And even now, there is something to be said about the color range, grain, and detail of an image taken on a roll of film that a digital camera can not really reproduce.

If you have the chance to go see the exhibit, I highly suggest it, especially if you’ve never been to the Transit Museum before. There is just something incredibly authentic about a transit museum actually being in an old, no longer used subway station. Anyways, here are some photos from last night, of the artist and the exhibit. I plan on posting some more images later in the week of the transit museum itself, and of the unexpected museum “employee” I encountered in one of the restored old subway cars.

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