New York Transit Museum

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.

This 1975 bus map of Queens used color coding to distinguish between the borough's different bus routes.

#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.

A well dressed woman sits in a classroom at a desk surrounded by only men.

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.”

A man teaches a young woman about operating a subway in 1973.

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.

A man teaches a young woman about NYC subway operating signals.

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").

Young woman touches train operation equipment in 1973.

Happy #InternationalWomensDay! Today, we're celebrating Marion McAllister, the first woman train operator in the #NYCsubway system!

An aerial shot of the East New York rail yard.

#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.

Subway Sketch and Sip with Ebony Bolt - New York Transit Museum Join us for an evening of drawing at the New York Transit Museum! Hosted by illustrator and textile designer, Ebony Bolt.

🎨 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....

Trolleys cross the Brooklyn Bridge.

Trolleys cross the Brooklyn Bridge as men work on the tracks.

Trolleys cross the Brooklyn Bridge.

An aerial shot of the Brooklyn Bridge, showing people, cars, and trolleys crossing as well as the Lower Manhattan skyline and East River.

#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

Homepage - New York Transit Museum Founded in 1976, the New York Transit Museum is dedicated to preserving and sharing the stories of New York’s mass transportation.

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.

The interior of City Island's Monorail including three men wearing bowler hats.

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.

City Island monorail in the Bronx, 1910.

To make matters worse, the conductor, worried that the overhead electrical rails would collapse, locked the passengers inside the car until rescue arrived. After some troubleshooting, the monorail reopened three months later and hit and destroyed an automobile.

City Island's monorail tips sideways in an accident.

Moments later, it toppled over while traveling on a curve, injuring many passengers who “were thrown one on top of the other on the floor of the car, so that they lay literally in layers.”

City Island's monorail train car tips sideways in an accident.

In its first year of operation, the monorail had two major accidents. The @nytimes.com reported that the monorail's “long, cigar-shaped yellow car” began its inaugural ride packed at about two-and-a-half times its capacity.

City Island's monorail in 1910.

#DidYouKnow City Island in the #Bronx once had its own #monorail? When the monorail opened in 1910, it was the only monorail in the United States. It ran from Bartow Station (a now long-forgotten ruin inside Pelham Bay Park) to Marshall's Corner, and over a bridge to the tip of City Island.

Visit the #NYTransitMuseum and you'll see many of Oppy's Subway Sun posters on our vintage fleet! We are open Wednesday-Sunday, 10am-4pm. Plan your visit at nytransitmuseum.org.

Opdyke Jones began signing her name as “Oppy” as a means of disguising her gender in the predominantly male field. Her posters included playful characters cajoling and scolding commuters into courteous behavior. She is often credited with coining the term “litterbug."

The Subway Sun was a public service ad campaign that ran on the IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit). Oppy's illustrations had a lasting impact on riders. According to a @nytimes.com article from 1948, “Some riders who formerly would block doors, hog seats or read papers in crowded cars no longer dare.”

It's #WomensHistoryMonth! Throughout March we’ll be highlighting the legacy of women in transit and focusing on some of the individuals who were first in their fields. 🎨 We begin with Amelia "Oppy" Opdyke Jones, the creative force behind the "Subway Sun" from the mid-1940s until the 1960s.

🎬 This 1989 #NYTMCollection archival video clip comes from the finale of "Progress in Motion," narrated by actor Avery Brooks. The film describes the advances made by the MTA's agencies since its 1982 and 1987 Capital Plans brought billion dollars of investment into #NYC's transportation system.

🎂 Happy Birthday, @MTA.info! #TodayInHistory: #OnThisDay in 1968, the New York State Legislature created the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to oversee transportation operations in twelve counties as the parent agency of the New York City Transit Authority. The MTA turns 58 today.

The photographs shown here come from the Miss Transit scrapbook in our archive's John Jacob Carol Lamond Collection. Lamond was 2nd Vice President of the Harlem Transit Committee in the 1960s, and donated these photographs, among other images and documents from his time on the HTC, to the Museum.