One of the many things I did yesterday in the city was to take photographs of the Holiday Train Show at the Transit Museum’s Grand Central Annex. I’ve always loved this show, and it is a major favorite for young children. The detail always amazes me… you definitely need to kneel down to see the “underneath” where the subways go by, and little people wait on the platform.

Anyways, enjoy the photos. The show will run through January 18, so there is still plenty of time to get down to Grand Central and take a look. It is a nice thing to see for the whole family, but I especially recommend it for all the little railfans.

Additional note: I’ll be posting video of this event soon! You can always subscribe to your new YouTube account!

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Wow, I am tired after a long day in the city… It will probably take me the next few days to go through all the photos and videos that I took, all of which will eventually get posted on here. I have a lot of pictures and video of the Holiday Train Show in Grand Central, photos and video from the Holiday Gift Fair, and a video of the Holiday Laser Light Show. For all these videos, I decided to make a YouTube account for this blog. There is nothing on there yet, but there will be shortly. If you are interested, you can subscribe to be notified when these videos are uploaded. But they will also be posted here.

But for now, enjoy the photos I took today at my tour with the New York Transit Museum of City Hall Station. Quite honestly, this tour was the reason why I became a member of the museum. And I had a great time. I took some video there as well, and I’ll post that at some point as well.

As an additional note, the Transit Museum will be running Holiday Nostalgia Trains every Sunday in December from 10am to 5pm. The trains will run in regular passenger service on the V line between
Queens Plaza & 2nd Avenue.

You’ve admired them sitting stationary at their home in the New York Transit Museum. Now Car No’s 100, 484 and 1575 are going for a spin! For the next four Sundays, these old friends from the 1930′s to 1970′s will be pulling in and out of V line stations. With luck and timing you can catch them!

Step in and enjoy the ceiling fans, padded seats and incandescent lights, all state-of-the-art back in the day. This Holiday Nostalgia Special will run on the V line, Sundays in December, between 10am and 5pm. For departure times and stations, please see below.

Happy Holidays from the New York Transit Museum!

For additional information about schedules, check out this information page.

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Honestly I don’t think I ever really thought about folding bikes before. I mean, I knew they existed, but I had never seen them before. That was until this guy started riding on my train. He always is wearing his bike helmet (though of course he could take that off on the train) and has with him a red folding bike. I always thought it was really cool. A folding bike actually comes quite in handy if you want to bike and ride the train. You are not required to have a bike permit on Metro North or the Long Island Rail Road if your bike folds up.

A few weeks ago when I had gone into the city I stopped at the annex of the Transit Museum in Grand Central, and I noticed that in the window they had two folding bikes as well, the Metro Bike. I snapped some photos, and only happened to come across them today as I was going through my old photos. So even though I know this may be old news for some people, I decided I’d post some of the pictures I took, and some from the web.

The bike isn’t too bad looking, though for me, a non-bike rider, the pricetag is a bit high at $299. But of course, folding bikes cost a bit more to begin with. Anyways, if you are interested in the Metro Bike, you can order it here.

For amusement, here is another Metro Bike. Or should I say, Metro Card Bike. Pretty cool, but I don’t think that folds up. :P

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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.