[wyliepoon]

On Sunday afternoon I took a trip to the MTA Transit Museum in Brooklyn. It is located in a former subway station (Court Street). Surprisingly (at least to me), the station is not connected directly to any other subway station. I took the subway to Hoyt-Schermerhorn Street, then walked two blocks to get to the museum.

The museum has two floors. The top floor (the station concourse) contains exhibits on early subway construction, turnstiles, fare media, the Triborough Bridge, buses and streetcars. The lower floor (the platform) is where historical trains are stored and displayed.

From a Torontonian's perspective it seems interesting that some transit related objects on display in the museum are still in active service here in the TTC, such as tokens and the GM Fishbowl bus.

 

[Anth]

I was skipping through there like a kid in a candy store last month and it's truly transit geek heaven. Love the wicker subway car seats!

There's also more about building the NYC subway (and the Brooklyn Bridge) at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum.

 

[JasonParis]

It's a fantastic little museum, but it's a tad hard to find and nobody in the area seems to have even heard of it. Strange, considering what a wonderful surprise it is once you are down below.

 

[ganjavih]

Wow, I'm definitely hitting that on my next visit to NYC. Great tour, wylie.

 

[Long Island Mike]

The New York Transit Museum....

Wylie: Good pics from the MTA's New York Transit Museum-in case you are wondering it opened in a unused at-the-time Subway station in 1976 as a Bicentennial project.

Entry admission was one token or fare until the mid 90s when the MTA threatened to shut down the Museum during bad MTA budget times-the Museum decided to sell memberships and raise the admission charge along with funding some operations from things like selling used transit items in their gift shops.

The NYC Transit Museum's Subway car collection-which is ALL in operating condition-is perhaps one of the best of its kind in any city.

Let me mention a couple of things: In pic #4 of the Metrocards-which are highly collectible-I have quite a few myself-are some rare editions like the one 2nd from the bottom in the right row of the WTC which was from a limited edition collectible set dating from about 1995.

#10-Coins used in lieu of NYC Transit tokens-note the other cities tokens represented like the silver color "M" Washington,DC Metrobus token near the right center of the board.

#34-the short-lived NYCTA "TA" logo from the 1960s era on a World's Fair IRT car(Mid 60s).

Yes-the NYC Transit Museum is well worth a visit! LI MIKE

 

[299 bloor call control.]

Ugh! I shouldn't have listened to my friend who said it wasn't worth visiting last time I was in New York... I must go now next time.