NYCTracks salutes the N train. Elevated a portion of its route, the N train takes a three borough tour, shuffling passengers back and forth. A member of NYCTracks documented his commute from 36th Avenue in Astoria to Times Square using a Flip cam. Check it out below:

AND NOW, FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT…

On a recent trip to Santo Domingo we explored one the world’s newest and most modern subway systems.  The Dominican Republic’s capital’s newest ride was completed in 2008, despite the millions it costs (its hard to obtain the exact figure).  This in a country of great poverty and staggering wealth inequality.  Rumor has it that the nation’s president, Leonel Fernández, who spent his formative years in Washington Heights, was inspired by our very own MTA.

A short visit to a brand new subway system in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

— Christopher F. Schuetze

The New York Transit Museum is hosting an exhibit of archeological artifacts found during construction of the new South Ferry Terminal.  The exhibit, which will open in the Transit Museum’s Annex at Grand Central station on March 18th, should help give a picture of life in lower Manhattan during the 18th and 19th century.

The museum will display a myriad of clay pipes (a common household item before the cigarette became popular), household crockery, wall tiles and various other artifacts associated with New York long before the MTA.  The artifacts were discovered during the construction of the new South Ferry Terminal. The new station was built while the original 1905-era South Ferry Terminal was still in use, which created the need for an enlarged construction foot-print, which in turn led to the discovery of the artifacts.

–Christopher F. Schuetze

In our Hidden Tracks column we tell of the old and the defunct, the hidden and the historic.  And while I hope these topics are – by themselves – intriguing, our main goal in bringing history to the fore (the forgotten to light) is to discuss the current state of the system and the proposals for its future.

Take the 2^nd avenue line. Most New Yorkers know that it has been planned for more than half a century.  Fewer might know that a special subway car was designed for use on this, as of yet unrealized, route.  Those cars – the R11 type – were delivered to the city in 1949 and, because the 2^nd avenue line was nowhere to be found, used on other parts of the network.  The R11 was intensely modern with under-the seat heaters, an advanced ventilation system and sterilizing lights.  The last surviving exemplar of the car now sits at the New York Transportation Museum.

The New York Transportation Museum is a great historical museum.  Housed in a 1936 shuttle station named for the nearby Brooklyn Criminal Court, it houses a score of historic subway cars.  While the age of the exhibits ranges from the very old – a turn-of-the-last-century Brooklyn Union car is on display that made the transition from el underground – to the recently retired, all cars actually run.  And though the station has not been in use by commuters for more than sixty years, its tracks remain active and each of the exhibits can be – and sometimes are – taken on the active systems’ rails.  Since all power to the exhibit cars is supplied by the active third rail, the visitor has the very real sense of being in a subway, waiting at a station.  This sense contributes to making this museum one of the great time machines this city has to offer.

— Christopher F. Schuetze