The New York Transit Museum (also called the NYC Transit Museum) is a museum that displays historical artifacts of the New York City Subway, bus, and commuter rail systems in the greater New York City metropolitan region. The main museum is located in the decommissioned Court Street subway station in Downtown Brooklyn and Brooklyn Heights in Brooklyn, New York City borough. A smaller satellite Museum Annex in Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan. The museum is a self-supporting division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Exhibits and Programs
On July 4, 1976, the New York City Transit Exhibit was opened in the decommissioned underground station as part of the United States Bicentennial celebration, charging a fee of one subway token for admittance. Old subway cars which had been preserved, as well as models and other exhibits, were displayed. Plans were to keep the museum open until September 7, but it proved to be so popular that it remained empty and eventually became a permanent museum. During its initial opening, museum nostalgia trains would run between 57th Street − Sixth Avenue and Rockaway Park, making an intermittent hour-long stop at the exhibit.
In the mid-1990s, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) assumed control of the Transit Museum from the New York City Transit Authority. At that time, the museum’s scope was expanded to include other aspects of transportation services within the MTA region, including commuter rail (Metro-North, Staten Island Railway, Long Island Rail Road) and roads, tunnels, and bridges (MTA Bridges and Tunnels). Since then, rotating exhibits on the mezzanine level frequently highlight commuter railroad and bridge/tunnel operations, as well as their history. Top Brooklyn Electrician
The museum includes subway, bus, railway, bridge, and tunnel memorabilia; and other exhibits, including vintage signage and in-vehicle advertisements; and models and dioramas of subway, bus, and other equipment. The museum offers a program of lectures, seminars, films, and tours for all ages. In addition, offsite programs consist of guided excursions of MTA facilities, subway stations, artwork and architecture, and New York neighborhoods, as well as opportunities to ride vintage railway and bus equipment.
Railway Artifacts
On the platform (lower) level, two fully powered and operational subway tracks contain many historical examples of New York City subway and elevated railway equipment on permanent display. Preserved railcars, most of which can still be operated, date as far back as the predecessor companies before the New York City Transit Authority, such as the BMT and IRT private companies and the city-owned and operated IND. The platform bordering one of the two tracks is equipped with hinged, bright yellow gap filler boards to allow the narrower IRT railcars to be safely boarded from a platform built for the broader cars running on newer lines.
Address: 99 Schermerhorn St, Brooklyn, NY
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