It’s time to fall in love with subway trains again.
I know what you’re thinking: What’s to like between the constant delays, scary breakdowns and rats stealing pizza?
But it didn’t used to be that way. Subway travel used to be an elegant affair, in carriages that look every bit as stylish as old cars. Our long and sometimes even glamorous history of train travel lives at the New York Transit Museum, and on Wednesday, July 26, you can explore it all at the museum’s one-night-only adult summer camp.
Out of all the millennial-driven nostalgia, adult summer camps might be the best. At Camp Wanna-Catcha-Train, you’ll have after-hours access to all of its exhibits, like the improbable timeline chronicling the Second Avenue Subway’s long journey to (partial) opening.
The real joy will be not having to share all the vintage subway cars with any young ears that might be offended as you vent about the state of public transit. It’s just you, your squad and beer from Brooklyn Brewery.
You may even walk away grateful — the one major difference for commuters today is that subway trains didn’t use to be air conditioned.
As a proper summer camp, Wanna-Catcha-Train will have traditional Arts & Crafts activities like block printing, making friendship bracelets, a campfire with s’mores and singalongs (they even take requests) and postcard-making so you can tell mom and dad how much you miss them. It’s probably been too long since you’ve called, anyway.
And because this is an adult camp, there will be less traditional activities like Train Line Twister, a tour revealing the kind of secrets that don’t make it onto museum plaques about the older-model train cars, and a special Third Rail-inspired craft project to create your own LED paper circuit flashlight.
Tickets are $15, and attendees must be 21 and older. Camp is in session from 6-8:30 p.m., and your admission includes one beer.
