Not taken for a ride.

Before returning to the many posts on the UK and France that have yet to emerge, I will add yet another diversion- this time, in the case of the New York Transit Museum which I happened to visit the other day.  Having only ever gone there once, on a school trip that many years ago, my memory was quite dim of what lie in store beyond old subway trains.

Struck first with its clever entrance and then soon realizing that the museum itself was a former subway station (Court Street, used in I believe the 1930s to 40s, and then so only for a decade), I proceeded to the ticket counter (an original token and information booth, as I was told).  Following through on a self guided tour of the two level space, I was struck when I saw that there were some display objects that were things of the future when I first went there on the first visit.  The obvious realization that time flies, and does so ever so quickly, leaving one behind...

Nostalgia and a certain sadness at tempus fugit in general soon gave way to an innocent interest in things of the past, but they were not overwhelming (as the case was at the phenomenal National Railway Museum in York) and the experience was akin to a schoolchild's visit- rather light in presentation, one could touch most things and it was as if the former train station were a sort of an underground playground.

But, what fun, though, going in and out of the old subway cars (dating back to the early part of the 20th century), and the best part of it was that there were no smelly bums, pathetic beggars, "musicians" or "dancers", discarded food items (say from McDonalds), the smell of fried food in the air (linked with the previous complaint), noisy music blaring from headphones and the like which among other things give New York subways their dubious character.

the entrance.

of the future when I first visited, and now of the long dead past.

one of the subway cars which will go nowhere but here.

two token machines similar to stamp vending units, also from the past.

a simple map for those going downtown.

1894 on the right, when tickets were taken by machine (and watched over)