nostalgia subway rides

 

every year for the holiday season between thanksgiving and new years the new york city mta runs nostalgia fleet rides on weekend mornings.

 

for the subways, they run the the vintage 1930s R1-9 series train cars. these are the depression/deco era subway cars of ‘take the A train’ fame. they have rattan seats, paddle wheel fans, incandescent bulbs, roll signs and period ads. they were in service from 1932-1977 and you would occasionally still come upon them even thru the 1990s.

 

so for nostalgia train season people often dress up in period clothes to meet the train, pose for pics at station stops -- and its just a very nice and very family friendly event.

 

 

 

 

here is a shot of R1 subway cars actually being delivered to 207st yard in 1931.

 

 

wish i took this great transit museum shot of the nostalgia train on an el track -- pretty cool.

 

 

***  if you are interested, there is always a schedule posted on the mta and transit museum websites, so you can plan ahead to ride, or for residents its just something that you happen upon organically now and again. ***

 

these are photos i found that i took over the years when i ran into a nostalgia train.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i guess it was moving here lol

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

last but not least, the mta and transit museum also run vintage busses at this time as well.

 

this one is a 1956 honeymooners ralph kramden era bus.

 

 

Those are the cars from Walker Evans' 1930s subway photos.  That lighting is quite dim and he had to cook the film 2+ stops to get a printable image. 

you can see them in the movies too and in technicolor in ‘on the town’ with sinatra and gene kelly.