Baseball and rail fans alike converged on the 34 St-Hudson Yards station last night to take the 7 train together to the 1964 World's Fair Game 1 of the NLCS at Citi Field. The "Train of Many Colors" is the latest in a series of popular vintage trains, including low-voltage trains for the holidays, the Subway's 110th anniversary, and "important Yankee games."
"My son is a huge fan of trains, and all things trains related. We literally came down here opening day, and when we found out this morning that The Train of Many Colors was coming, we decided to take a ride," said Joe from Queens, who came with his toddler son, Sebastian. "We also figured it would be kind of fun with all the Mets fans in the area."
Even NLCS neutrals made the journey to Citi Field. "I am legally required to be a Yankees fan" said Emily Goucher, an avid rail fan who estimates that she's been to dozens of vintage train events with her friend, Emily Cheney.
"I'm a train buff, I love these old trains. It's great that they pull them out for these type of events; get the public all riled up and interested, especially with the Mets making it into the playoffs with the Cubs. Go Mets!" said Nick Nonis, an MTA train operator. "It's always great when you can go back into time and operate one of these old ones. Oldie but goodies!"
There were even some Cubs fans who dared brave the Mets crowd: "I'm a Cubs fan, we never have a chance," explained Scott Smentek, a Chicago-native living here with his wife, Stefanie Greenberg.
The train's front car is a 1963 R33 model, built by the St. Louis Car Company for the World's Fair, and completely decked out in World's Fair Light Blue, the very sleek NYCTA logo, pre-Vignelli Subway maps dating back to 1967, and vintage ads, including Miss Subway, Etti-Cat, and the James Bond classic Thunderball, which came out just two months after the World's Fair concluded in 1965.
The rest of the train were all R36s—they're best known for their many years of service on the 7 train as Redbirds, although the red color scheme was only used from 1985 until their retirement in 2003. They used a variety of different shades of blue and grey before that, (often on the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 lines, where they were used at different times between 1976 and 2001), all of which were on display. They feature the classic Blue M logo and ads from 2003.
Knuckles, host of the YouTube series The Super Subway Bros, noted that the R36 is very similar to the R32, also known as the 50-year old trains that still handle the bulk of C train service. "As far as the 7 is concerned, I would like to see, at least one time, on another line, two times out of the year, where they run [the Redbirds] for full service, end to end," he added.
The Train of Many Colors will arrive at 34 St-Hudson Yards at 6:30 p.m. tonight, and will depart a few minutes later, running express to Flushing-Main St. station. Game 2 kicks off at 8 p.m. tonight, with Noah Syndergaard getting the nod for the Mets against Cubs ace Jake Arrieta.
An MTA employee working on last night's train told Gothamist that the Train of Many Colors would return for games 6 and 7 (if necessary, they will take place next Saturday and Sunday) of the NLCS and the World Series: "as long as it's in New York."
