Results tagged “transitmuseum”

     

The New York Transit Museum is presenting a photo exhibit featuring images taken on the last day the Myrtle Avenue El in Brooklyn was in operation, all taken by noted photographer Theresa King. You can revisit the past starting September 29th at the museum (running through the end of February), but here's a sneak peek and a little history.

There are probably some folks out there not complaining about the subway typos—the ones who found love underground. Do you have a story like Patrick Moberg's, except one that didn't end with public appearances on national television and, ultimately, a break-up? The NYC Transit Museum wants to know if you met your loved one on the bus or subway. They're asking that you share your story online, and on Valentine's Day they'll pick the best of the public transit romances to share. Just remember, if you do meet someone using NYC mass transit, use an NYC condom, and report any suspicious packages.

    

As we mentioned yesterday, the MTA's Transit Museum Annex opened its annual Holiday Train Show-- and this year there are the first-ever MTA-licensed NYC Subway Lionel Train Cars along with the recently released Metro-North Commuter Lionel Trains. A press release from Lionel Trains explains how the model subway train cars are extremely detailed:

"The R-27 Subway Car was first put into service by the MTA in 1960 and continued to serve New York City riders into the early 1990s. Lionel has created an exact replica of these trains all the way down to the kale green enamel finish, rooftop rivets and even the destination boards on the exterior of the train cars, along with opening doors and authentic subway sounds!"

                    

Yesterday, Gothamist attended the 34th annual Atlantic Antic along Atlantic Avenue between Hicks Street and Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn. For the uninitiated, this not your typical New York "tube sock" street fair. Sure there are some of the typical food vendors (gyros, roasted corn and Mozzarepas, natch). But unlike most other street fairs, there is a strong neighborhood presence in both food (including freebees from the new kid on the block Trader Joe’s) and vendors, along with many Brooklyn community groups and a wide variety of live music. As an added bonus this year, the New York Transit Museum had free admission along with its annual bus festival.

On Tuesday, the New York City Transit Museum opened a small exhibit dedicated to the 25th Anniversary of Metro-North Railroad in its Annex at Grand Central Terminal. It features some artifacts from both the pre-MTA takeover (which created Metro-North) days to today and provides a Cliffs Notes version on how the railroad that serves the northern suburbs and Connecticut operates.

The February edition of the MTA’s monthly television show, Transit Transit (Saturdays, 3:30 p.m., WNYE 25) , has a segment about Marvin Franklin, the NYC Transit Authority track inspector who was killed last year in an on the job accident in Brooklyn. The piece talks with some artists who knew Franklin and his co-workers and covers the opening of an exhibition of his work at the New York City Transit Museum in December.

In April of this year Marvin Franklin, a subway track inspector, was struck and killed by a G train. It quickly came to light that Franklin, who had worked underground for 22 years, was also an accomplished artist. He held an arts degree from FIT and dreamed of opening his own gallery one day, giving the proceeds to the homeless (which he once was, and who were frequent subjects in his sketchbooks).

In 1988, the Jackie Gleason Bus Depot was renamed in memory of the Brooklyn native whose most famous role was acerbic bus driver Ralph Kramden on the classic television show The Honeymooners. In fact the logo for the depot is based on the title sequence for the show. The depot takes up several blocks on 5th Avenue in Sunset Park, across 36th Street from Green-Wood Cemetery. It is one of five that serves Brooklyn...

Sunday, we took a Transit Museum tour of the East 180th Street Maintenance Facility led by Joseph Tassiello, the Superintendent of the facility. He explained the role of the shops and how the modern Bombardier R142 subway car has made his job easier in getting the thirty-three 10-car-trains in service on the 5 train every day. In the days of the Redbirds, fixing something simple like a damaged floor involved taking the train out...

Yesterday we visited the New York Transit Museum’s new exhibit “Show Me the Money: From the Turnstile to the Bank" which details the fare cycle, from buying the fare instrument to the sorting of the money. If you haven’t been to the museum, it is located in a disused 1930s vintage IND subway station in Brooklyn Heights.

Yesterday, Gothamist attended the 33rd annual Atlantic Antic along Atlantic Avenue between Hicks Street and Fourth Avenue. It is not your typical New York street fair with actual local groups, business and restaurants getting involved. Plus the New York Transit Museum had free admission as well as its annual vintage bus festival.

The Division of State Government Accountability from the Office of the New York State Comptroller recently released an audit of the New York City Transit Museum’s Nostalgia Train program. The audit identified “significant weaknesses in the Museum’s internal controls over ticket revenue for Nostalgia Train excursions” and that most of the program’s costs are coming from New York City Transit’s fare revenues and public mass transit funding.

This past Sunday, Gothamist went on a tour of the Brighton Line and Franklin Avenue Shuttle subway lines in Brooklyn. The tour, sponsored by the New York City Transit Museum, was lead by subway historian Joe Cunningham who gave an incredibly detailed history of the line, peppered with historical anecdotes, on the various tour stops on the line that started as a steam powered railroad to take holiday makers to the Brighton Beach Hotel during the Victorian era.

If you ever thought wedding planners were a waste of money and a huge headache, you'll love this NY Times article about them. Sure, there are good ones out there (if you have any suggestions, feel free to list them in the comments), but there are many horror stories, like a couple who went through two "planzillas" (including one whose planning was turning their wedding into a million-dollar affair) until finding one they could tolerate. Our advice: See how much the catering manager of the venue you're planning your event is willing to take on. And then rope in an understanding, super patient friend or relative who is Type A enough to want to help you out. And if you have any other advice, let us know!

Yesterday we visited the New York City Transit Authority’s Corona Maintenance Shop in Queens as part of a New York City Transit Museum tour.

While umbrellas are most convenient when they are small enough to stow into a bag, this 43" umbrella is very tempting. It's the MTA Transit Museum Store's Grand Central Ceiling Umbrella, which was created with the Municipal Art Society.

Arching over the 80,000 square-foot Main Concourse, this extraordinary ceiling was painted from a design by French artist Paul Helleu. The blue-green and gold mural portrays the October to March zodiac and contains more than 2,500 starts, with 60 lighted to illustrate major constellations.

With construction set to begin yet again on the 2nd Avenue subway, the Times takes a look at the "subway car of tomorrow", the R11, which was built in anticipation of being used on the 2nd Avenue line once the line opened. As we all know, the line was never finished, so the ten cars with porthole window in the doors, were scattered to compatible trains around the system.

Yesterday, Gothamist had the chance to visit the abandoned City Hall subway station as part of a New York City Transit Museum members only tour, led by subway historian Joe Cunningham.

Via Triborugh, the New York Public Library has this cool map showing the Brooklyn Bridge Station and City Hall loop. The station was first opened at the start of the Interborough Rapid Transit Line on October 27, 1904, but it closed in 1945 - there were big gaps between the platform and doors of newer and longer trains. Since the station wasn't used very much, the MTA decided that the Brooklyn Bridge station was enough.

A look at some noteworthy programs this week:

The Triborough Bridge is 70 years old today. As the MTA puts it, the bridge is "actually three bridges, a viaduct, and 14 miles of approach roads connecting Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx." And traveling along it can provide some of the most beautiful views of the city -and the bridges themselves aren't bad. Today, the NY Times looks at the history of the bridge and its creator, Robert Moses. We liked this quote about Moses, the scarily powerful Parks Commissioner:

“He was a visionary,” said Robert Del Bagno, exhibitions manager at the Transit Museum in Brooklyn Heights, where “The Triborough Bridge: Robert Moses and the Automobile Age” is on display through next year.

Continue reading "Happy 70th Birthday, Triborough Bridge"

At the MTA board meeting, Chairman Peter Kalikow said there "probably" won't be a monthly Metrocard fare hike next year. But the "probably not" is contingent on the MTA having another surplus year, which could be possible, if they played their real estate cards right. The MTA has assumed fare increases for next year (and other years), and while Gothamist would hate an increase, we do understand that it might have to happen, what with the MTA's billions in defict. The Citizens Budget Commission released their ideas on how to balance the MTA budget (PDF), which include congestion pricing, East River tolls, and other fees.

- The Straphangers' Campaign's Gene Russianoff has a blog!

Ask.MeFi has been assembling an eclectic guide to "the best alternative/weird/unusual/eye-opening places in Manhattan." Most of the suggestions are actually located in the outer boroughs, but nevermind that. We've pulled out the highlights and linked everything for your browsing pleasure:

8:30PM - Heads to the screening at the Ziegfeld (141 West 54th Street)There's always a chance the itinerary will change now that it's out, but really, this is like him just posing in one of the trains at the Transit Museum - cheap! They'll probably stock the car full of Scientologists so it looks like a regular subway.

Gothamist loves us some Quicktime VR action, so it was nice to stumble upon PBS's Hidden New York series. While some places aren't so hidden to us - like the Transit Museum and Coney Island - it's still a cool feature to kill some time with. Panoramas include Broad Channel, the World's Fair, the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, and Sailors' Snug Harbor.

Instead, in this case, an unknown male remaining on the platform approached the subway and started to rifle through his victim’s bag. He held onto the handbag, opened it and removed her property—all while the woman was trying to pull her pocketbook to safety. Before she managed to free it, the thief absconded with a $100 Vidal Sassoon gift card, a $120 Metro-North 10-pack of tickets and her ladies’ Cole Haan wallet, in addition to her driver’s license and credit cards.That is just stonecold! If only there was an intrepid fellow straphanger who could take a photograph of the thief - maybe the NYPD could cross check that with anyone getting a new coif at Vidal Sassoon.

The word of the day: Contingency!

The New York Transit Museum has been a staple of Elementary school trips for as long as Gothamist can remember, but in conversation with friends we find it rarely gets the love it deserves from the average New Yorker. Absurd, we say, since where else can you see (and enter) a hundred year old train? Look at every kind of token ever used in New York (oh tokens, those were days)? Not to mention stare at old posters, turnstiles, trains and more? Obviously the answer is nowhere else.