Time Travel Treat for Dec. Sunday Subway Riders; Metro North Gets into Spirit too
The subway nostalgia trains run on Sundays only in December on Manhattan lines with well preserved 1930s era cars featuring overhead fans and Raritan seats. And now Metro North is getting into the holiday spirit running trains decorated with holiday lights out of Grand Central.
| 04 Dec 2024 | 05:19
Vintage ads, such as the Coca Cola ad to the rear of the car, adorn the 1930s era subway cars which are providing today’s passengers a chance to travel back in time. The vintage cars run on Sundays only. (
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Metro North is running its Holiday Lights special trains at random times seven days a week through New Year’s Day on the three different Metro North routes. (
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With the backdrop of the Nostalgia Holiday Train, two ladies pose as they get ready for a time-traveling ride at 2nd Avenue and Houston. Lunch? Tea? A trip half-way around the world? Or just a chance to enjoy the comforts from a 1930s subway train. (
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Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside, ne’er the train shall meet....or will it? Mr. Inside, wearing clothes from today, happily using his iPhone to document the trip—Mr. Outside, replete with fedora, maybe thinking about how he was going to pitch his latest Ad to a client on Madison Avenue. (
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A nostalgia train gets photobombed by iPhones as it rumbles into the station at the 96th St. Second Avenue station a stop which did not exist when the R1/9 trains were the pride of the fleet. They were retired in 1977. Although the station was envisioned in the 1920s, it did not come to pass until 100 years laer.
The R1/9s, which were decommissioned in 1977, had no comfy cabin for conductors to perform their duties: the opening and closing of doors was performed on the outside of the train, day or night, subway or elevated, clear or wet weather. (
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Three gentlemen stood on the platform at Second Avenue and Houston Street as the Holiday Nostalgia Train waits for a departure northwards to the 96th St/ 2nd Avenue. (
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With faces hard pressed against the front glass, subway aficionados, young and old have scored the best location on the incoming Holiday Nostalgia Train. Unlike many other stations on the combined F/Q routing, the station at 57th and 6th had few passengers waiting to jump on the train as it headed north. (
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Nostalgia trains are riding again, every Sunday on the New York City subway lines and now Metro North is getting into the act as well, decorating a limited number of trains with holiday lights.
At other times of the year, subway riders are likely to complain how old the subway cars are. But in December, some of the the old restored cars from the 1930s cars are likely to elicit joy rather than complaints as they make regular runs on select lines.
Every Sunday in December from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. riders will have the ability to ride on the New York Transit Museum’s Holiday Nostalgia Trains for the price of a Metrocard or OMNY subway ride.
In fact, you could make an entire day out of traveling between 2nd Ave. Station at Houston St. on the F line and 96th Street and Second Ave. on the Q line and back. Approximately a 40-minute ride in each direction, the sights, sounds are quite different from our normal subway rides. Your ride will be enhanced by ceiling fans, whistles (not horns like current trains) that announce each station arrival, and an enthusiastic cadre of Transit Museum volunteers and NYC Transit employees who negotiate the unusual equipment on busy subway lines.
It’s quite the balancing act.
The cars are preserved as part of the New York Transit Museum’s collection. The eight vintage Independent Subway System (IND) cars first entered service on the Eighth Avenue line (today’s A/C/E) in 1932 and ran until 1977, when they were sidelined for newer equipment. Once the pride of the first subway company operated by the City of New York, the R1/9s used on the train accentuated the IND’s Depression-era Art Deco aesthetic with rattan seats, paddle ceiling fans, incandescent light bulbs, roll signs, and period advertisements. Of special note, car 1575 which runs in the middle of the train, was rebuilt from its original appearance following an accident in 1946, and became a subway car designed to test new interior and cosmetic features. While it looks far more modern than the other cars, it is only compatible with the preserved cars of the R1–9 fleet.
The Holiday Nostalgia Train equipment that you will ride in is the last operating remnant of a fleet that once numbered 1,700 subway cars in service, now kept in operating condition by NYC Transit.
This year, the Train will operate on December Sundays, the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th of the month, between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., departing from the 2nd Avenue/Houston St. stop on the uptown F line in lower Manhattan at 10 a.m., 12 p.m., 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. The return runs from 96th Street stop at 2nd Avenue on the Q line will be at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m., and 5 p.m.
The Holiday Nostalgia Train stops in both directions are 2nd Avenue –Houston St. (F); Broadway/ Lafayette St. (D, 6); W. 4th Street/ Washington Square (A/C/E, D/F); 34th Street/Herald Square (D/F, N/Q/R); 42nd Street/Bryant Park (A/C/E, D/F, N/Q/R, S, 7); 47th–50th Streets/Rockefeller Center (D/F); 57th Street/6th Ave (F); Lexington Ave./63rd St. (F, Q); 72nd St. /2nd Ave. (Q); 86th Street/ 2nd Ave. (Q); and 96th St./2nd Avenue (Q).
Please note that masks are encouraged, but not required on vintage trains and all rides are weather permitting. Additionally, given the age of the cars on the train, timing, routes, and equipment are subject to change.
But wait! There’s more Holiday rail fun in store.
For anyone traveling out of Grand Central Terminal, MTA Metro-North Railroad has unveiled its first ever Holiday Lights Train that now runs on the Hudson Division to Croton Harmon, the Harlem Line to Southeast, and on the New Haven Line to New Haven. The one electric train outfitted with colorful exterior lights and special holiday-themed safety messages that will play at selected stations. The train is operating on a random rotation of regularly scheduled trains on all three lines at all times of day and night. Unlike its subway sibling, the Metro-North train does not have a specific schedule, but it will run seven days a week through New Year’s. Should you need to travel north from Grand Central, you may be pleasantly surprised.
Said Metro-North Railroad President Catherine Rinaldi. “I’m thrilled that Metro-North can bring the joy, beauty and lights of the season to all of our riders on their way to work, school or to see family and friends during the holidays, and to those who see it roll through their towns,”
For any further information on the Nostalgia Holiday Train: https://www.nytransitmuseum.org/holidaynostalgiarides/
For info on the Metro North Holiday Lights Train: https://new.mta.info