New York Transit Museum Resumes Their ‘Summer Nostalgia Rides’ Series

This summer, the New York Transit Museum is taking subway riders on a return trip of a different kind through the revival of their “Summer Nostalgia Rides” series.

After a two-year hiatus, the 2022 edition of this series will bring out vintage subway and elevated train cars from the museum’s equipment collection. It will resume with three events that will set these cars back in motion.

The first offering happens on Saturday, June 4, with the “Catch the IRT from Old South Ferry Loop.” Departing at 10 a.m. EST, from the MTA South Ferry Station in Lower Manhattan, a standard Lo-V subway car will run for an hour and 45 minute ride up the 2 subway line to the Bronx on this non-stop roundtrip ride.

According to Chelsea Newburg, the museum’s PR and marketing manager, offering vintage train rides has been an integral part of the museum’s event calendar since its opening in 1976.

“In fact, we are the one of only a few organizations with a vintage fleet that can operate on its originally intended lines,” said Newburg. “Keeping our vintage train cars moving and rail worthy actually requires moving the fleet, and what better way to do that than to take riders on a trip through the boroughs and back in time.”

With the slogan, “Catch All The Trains You Missed!,” the New York Transit Museum holds a collection of these old-time cars that reflect a time before today’s automated voice announcements and computer monitors informing the current, next and final stop. And even air conditioning.

These subway and elevated cars are also graced with vintage advertisements. Riders can sit down and hold onto the handrails.

After “Catch the IRT from Old South Ferry Loop,” two more “Summer Nostalgia Rides” will be offered.

On Sunday, July 10, “Beach Bound: Coney Island” leaves from Manhattan’s 96th Street-Second Avenue Station via the museum’s 1930s R1-9 vintage train cars to this popular Brooklyn destination. It departs from Manhattan at 10 a.m.

While checking out Coney Island’s attractions, including Luna Park and Nathan’s Famous hot dog stand, visit the Coney Island Museum to see the New York Transit Museum’s exhibit, “Five Cents to Dreamland: A Trip to Coney Island.”

The exhibition is on loan from the transit museum. This vintage train car trip leaves Coney Island at 4 p.m. and travels back to Manhattan to end at 175th Street via the Q, D and A subway lines.

The final trip in “Summer Nostalgia Rides” is “To The Rockaways by Rail” on Saturday, August 13, at 10 a.m. On board the New York Transit Museum’s 1930s R 1-9 vintage train cars, ticketholders will take a beach day by heading from Manhattan’s 96th Street-Second Avenue Station to Rockaway Park-Beach 116th Street in Queens.

The ride brings passengers to Rockaway Beach, a popular beach destination located on a narrow peninsula on the southern edge of Queens. The trains return to Manhattan at 4 p.m. along the A subway line to end at the 175th Street station.

Aside from the cars being used in the summers series, the New York Transit Museum’s vintage fleet has ones dating back to 1904, the year that the New York City subway system opened.

Around 20 different cars can be seen at the transit museum’s downtown Brooklyn location. It is housed within a historic 1936 IND subway station; a satellite venue with a gallery and store is at Grand Central Terminal.

Additional trains are stored in train yards throughout New York City, where they’re maintained by the MTA. “These are the very same train cars that city dwellers rode more than a century ago,” said Newburg.

Tickets for the New York Transit Museum’s “Summer 2022 Nostalgia Rides” are at $60 for adults, $40 for children and $30 for museum members.

Newburg said that ticketholders will receive an email with instructions on exactly where to catch the train, including which end of the platform is best to check-in at, and the exact route the train will take. “The vintage trains are hard to miss and New York Transit Museum staff will be on the platform to assist!”

For tickets and more information, visit the museum’s website.