I will be in New York City for a few days near the middle of this month. I want to take in the New York City Transit Museum. I have never been there. Any thoughts about how much time I should plan to spend there will be appreciated.
Only you can make that determination and only when you get there. It depends on what you are interested in and how deeply; and how much time you want to spend on it. Some feel that if they've seen one old subway car they've seen them all and head for the A train. Others see one car and take all day counting rivits and bolts then come back the next day either to do it over or do another car. What a museum has and how it is presented when I walk through the door is what determines how much time I'm going to spend. And I am assuming you mean the museum in Brooklyn and not the cubby hole they have at GCT.
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henry6 Only you can make that determination and only when you get there. It depends on what you are interested in and how deeply; and how much time you want to spend on it. Some feel that if they've seen one old subway car they've seen them all and head for the A train. Others see one car and take all day counting rivits and bolts then come back the next day either to do it over or do another car. What a museum has and how it is presented when I walk through the door is what determines how much time I'm going to spend. And I am assuming you mean the museum in Brooklyn and not the cubby hole they have at GCT.
Counting rivits is not my thing, but it sounds like a couple of hours would do me fine. I am interested in the Brooklyn museum. I appreciate your thoughts.
I have to admit I've never been there myself but want to go....but everytime I am in the area with my Ride With Me Henry riders we are going someplace else. I wonder what my reaction would be to the Museum as havning ridden all of those cars from birth in 1943 through their demise...even the Myrtle Ave. open cars! The real thing I want to do is get down there for one of the fan trips. And right now, for the Holiday Season there is a set running part of one of the lines every Sunday...check the MTA website for details on this and other monthly train sets in operation.
Henry I am kind of surprised you have not seen.
Many years ago I was back to the city and talked my uncle & cousins into a visit.
They do have some rare equipment if they have not had to rearrange. Also when I was there the tower board was still wired in to the track circuits so you could watch trains on it.
I do have to go back and check it again, it has been too long.
Thx IGN
Me thinks this is something I will have to go see even if it is by meself!
I hope to get there on Friday, if I can shake loose from my family on our overnight visit to NYC. They all know and sort of tolerate me being a bit of a train nut. This is someone who got his MBA in Hospital Administration riding the East Side rails between Baruch and Mount Sinai.
I would suggest two or three hours. This will give you enough time to walk through all the historic cars on display, perhaps even try a couple of seats. and read most of the signage and explanation that is avialable. Note that you are lucky for going at the present time. The oldest existing electric freight locomotive is now on display at the museum, on loan from the Shore Line Trolley Musuem, Branford Electric Railway Associatoin, East Haven and Branford, CT www.bera.org. It dates from 1888!! The Derby and Ansonia Electric Railway was a very early streetcar line, and merchants in Derby got the idea of shipping and receiving goods via a river dock with steamships to provide competition for what they felt were high rates on the railroad. So this little locomotive with one carbody mounted motor was built, plus a set of 4-wheel diminutive gondola cars to use the new streetcar line. The locomitve has been restored and is operable, but obiously the Transit Museum has third rail and no overhead wire, so currently it is a static display. We do not know how long the Transit Museum wishes to keep it . It is one of BERA's most valuable possesions, but it is also a good advertisement for more customers to visit the museum in Connecticut. I should add that the New York City Transit Authority is very helpful when it comes to BERA's maintaining and repairing its fleet of New York City elevated and subway cars. which are trolley-pole equpped to operate at the Connecticut Museum. (This was once true of the elevated cars operating in Brooklyn in service as well, which up to about 1924 had considerable surface operation, similar to Chicago. And even the BMT steels, of which one is at Branford, once had trolley poles for trial operation before the initial Sea Beach line was opened for through service via then new 4th Avenue subway and Manhattan Bridge to Manhattan.)
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