Transit Museum Runs Nostalgia Train
By Tom Kertes

Riding the New York Transit Museum’s Nostalgia Train really does make you ponder the passage of time. For instance, what would happen in 2002 to a Subway train with leather seats, an open ceiling fan, and exposed light bulbs? One can only shudder at the thought. Yet these BMT Triplex cars, first put into service in 1924, were used all the way up to 1965.

The Transit Museum, of course, is all about history. “It’s no exaggeration to state that public mass transportation has impacted seriously on all aspects of society,” said Mark L. Watson, the Museum’s Director of Education. “Before the Subway, which began operations in 1904, the borough of Queens was no more than a series of small settlements, mostly farmland. Many other areas of New York City were either not developed or not reachable as well. The reach of the Subway encouraged developers and land speculators to buy and build more than any other single factor.”

The first Subway line merely ran from City Hall to 42nd Street where, switching to the current IRT line, it continued up to 145th Street. In 1908 the line expanded to the East Side and Brooklyn and, once the train’s importance became clear, further additions quickly followed.

“Truth is, we still use much of the original equipment when it comes to switches and many other things,” Watson smiled. “Not because we don’t want to modernize but because it is wonderful sturdy stuff. Because it works.”

Originally, only the IND line was owned by the City; the BMT and IRT lines were owned by private corporations. However, the BMT–then called the BRT–went bankrupt in 1910 and by 1940 the City ran all three lines.

The Museum, located in a decommissioned 1936 IND subway station at the corner of Boerum Place and Schermerhorn Street in Brooklyn, is currently undergoing a major modernization process. The Education Department is being reconfigured to include an additional classroom for children’s workshops, a computer lab and a reference library.

Present educational programs serve approximately 60,000 students a year. The Museum’s focus is hands-on workshops such as “Building the Brooklyn Bridge,” in which students use mathematical skills to build a huge (16-foot) model of a suspension bridge. Another workshop, “Miles of Tiles,” teaches students how to make those colorful mosaics you see in many Subway stations.

Many of the workshops are mobile; Transit Museum staff frequently visit the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, St. Francis College and all 69 branches of the Brooklyn Public Library.

“All the workshops and lectures are in strict coordination with City and State educational standards,” Watson said. “You could safely say that educating children–and educating them in a fun, creative manner that inspires them to learn–is one of the chief missions of the New York Transit Museum.”#