#WomensHistoryMonth: 👮♀️ #DidYouKnow the Transit Police hired women as early as 1953? Women joined the Transit Police as undercover “Masher Bait,” to catch men who sexually harassed or groped women riders. Music credit: “Opus Z,” Mary Lou Williams.
Photos by Marc A. Hermann / MTA.
What features do you enjoy most about the R211s?
R211A cars are designed with numerous upgrades to subway car technology, including security cameras, additional accessible seating, digital displays that provide detailed station-specific information, and brighter lighting and signage.
These images show the R211A’s inaugural ride, including the cars’ arrival at 207th Street station, an MTA.info celebratory ribbon cutting, and the train’s first passengers.
#TodayInHistory: Three years ago, #OnThisDay in 2023, the first R211A subway cars entered customer service on the A line.
🟦 ⬜️ Friday, April 3 at 11am – Yankees Home Opener Ride
A four-car 1917 Lo-V train and six-car Redbird train will depart from the uptown 4 train platform of Grand Central-42 St at 11am on Friday, April 3 and will run non-stop to 161 St-Yankee Stadium.
🟧 🟦 Thursday, March 26 at 11am – Mets Home Opener Ride
The Museum’s eight-car Redbird train will depart from 34 St-Hudson Yards on the 7 line at 11am on Thursday, March 26, making several stops on the way to Mets-Willets Point.
⚾️ Baseball is back! Batter up for a Nostalgia Ride to Opening Day! Ride vintage trains to the Yankees and Mets home opener games. Hop aboard for just the cost of your subway fare. Learn more at nytransitmuseum.org/nostalgia-rides.
#MetroCardMonday: This 1998 #NYTMCollection television ad is one of a series of #MetroCard Gold spots narrated by Mandy Patinkin. Feeling nostalgic for the MetroCard? Check out “FAREwell, MetroCard," now on view at the Museum in Downtown Brooklyn. Plan your visit via at nytransitmuseum.org.
Though the private bus operators in Queens are now a thing of the past, many remained in service for a long time, with Triboro Coach still in business through 2006.
Nowadays, the @MTA.info runs all bus routes in Queens (via both MTA New York City Transit and MTA Regional Bus Operations), and recently completed the Queens Bus Network Redesign to bring new and improved transit service to New York’s largest borough.
At the time the map was printed, Queens bus riders in the 70s may have been regular customers of MTA New York City Transit, as well as the Metropolitan Suburban Bus Authority, Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica Buses, Inc., Queens Transit Corp., Steinway Transit Corp. and Triboro Coach Corp.
#SurfaceSunday: This 1975 bus map of #Queens used color coding not only to distinguish between the borough's different bus routes, but also the variety of companies who oversaw them.
McAllister told the @nytimes.com, “At first I thought I couldn’t take it underground, but now I don’t think there’s anything better. There’s always something to learn. You never get bored.”
The press release notes that during McAllister's training, she would learn to manage “the sophisticated equipment found on the new R44 subway cars.” It also mentions that when McAllister took the test to become a motorman, she scored 19th in a field of over a thousand male applicants.
These photographs accompanied a 1973 press release announcing McAllister’s historic entry into motorman training (at the time, the position was still known as “motorman").
Happy #InternationalWomensDay! Today, we're celebrating Marion McAllister, the first woman train operator in the #NYCsubway system!
#TransitTrivia: This #NYTMCollection photograph shows an aerial view of the East New York Yard in May of 1983. It is one of three New York City subway yards equipped with hand-operated switches. Can you name the other two yards?
Located near the East New York Bus Depot and intersection of the BMT Canarsie and Jamaica lines, the yard’s layup tracks were originally constructed on two levels. Today, it serves trains on the J, L, M, and Z lines.
#DidYouKnow that the East New York Yard features segments of the former BMT Lexington Avenue elevated line, dating back to 1885? Why? Because the BMT Jamaica Line serves stations once constructed for the Lexington Avenue Line.
🎨 Sketch & Sip is back! 🍷 Join us Thursday, March 26 at 6pm for an evening of drawing at the Transit Museum. Hosted by illustrator and textile designer Ebony Bolt. Get inspired by our vintage subway cars, decommissioned station, and exhibits! Learn more at www.nytransitmuseum.org/program/sket....
#TodayInHistory: #OnThisDay in 1950, the last trolley crossed the Brooklyn Bridge. A major transit artery for much of its history, the Brooklyn Bridge had also carried cable cars and an elevated railway. Trolleys were the last to go. These #NYTMcollection photos show trolleys on the Brooklyn Bridge.
#TransitTrivia: This clip from the final scene of the 1986 film "Crocodile Dundee" shows a game of "telephone" taking place between actors Linda Kozlowski and Paul Hogan in what is supposed to be the 59th Street–Columbus Circle station in #Manhattan. Do you know where it was actually filmed?
#DidYouKnow you can explore our vast collection online? See thousands of objects and images. Go to nytransitmuseum.org/onlinecollections.
Music credit: “Game Show,” @squadcar37 Audio Productions.
#WhatsNewinTheArchive
Learn more about sandhogs and the construction of the early #NYCsubway in our exhibit "Steel, Stone & Backbone" at the Museum in Downtown Brooklyn. Plan your visit at nytransitmuseum.org.
⛏️ 🔧 These are just some of the many tools that belonged to a sandhog named Antonio who worked on the tunnels of the IND subway system in the late 1920s.
These #NYTMCollection images show monorail cars from the Pelham Park and City Island Railway, and include documentation of the infamous first ride accident.
Eventually, after further adjustments, the monorail was able to run regular service for a few more years. It only lasted until 1914. New York City would not see a monorail again for another 50 years, when the AMF (American Machine and Foundry) debuted its monorail exhibit at the 1964 World’s Fair.
