If you, your dad or anyone else in your family is a railfan, this Father’s Day weekend might be for you as the New York Transit Museum is hosting its fourth annual Parade of Trains featuring vintage subway cars making special trips to and from Brighton Beach.
From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, you can catch vintage train cars, including the oldest ones in the Transit Museum’s fleet that date back to 1904, as they travel to and from the Brighton Beach station B/Q platforms for just the swipe of a MetroCard.
Straphangers will only be able to enter and exit the vintage train cars at Brighton Beach; the trains will make short round trips to Ocean Parkway and longer round trips to Kings Highway.
“We are delighted to be able to bring our vintage fleet out this weekend and enjoy the return to the rails of some of our oldest train cars,” Museum Director Concetta Bencivenga told Metro. “The Transit Museum is incredibly proud of our trains and grateful to the people who keep them in service. We can’t think of a better way to spend Father’s Day weekend than riding the rails at the 4th annual Parade of Trains — and all it takes is the swipe of your MetroCard and a trip to Brighton Beach!”
Vintage subway cars that will be included in the Parade of Trains include:
• BRT Brooklyn Union Elevated Cars, the oldest in the Transit Museum fleet, were used from 1903 to 1969. They were known as “gate cars” as passengers boarded and exited via open-air vestibules at the front and rear of each car. A conductor had to manually open and close metal gates and ring a bell to let the motorman know it was safe to proceed when all riders were safely on board.
• MRT/BMT Standards, which ran from 1914 to 1969. These cars were 67-feet long and 10-feet wide, with 78 seats, 14 additional drop-down ones and a standing capacity of 182 passengers. These cars were the first to use destination roll signs, bigger windows and brighter lights.
• BMT D-Type Triplex, used from 1925 to 1965, were ordered as mass transit shifted from wooden train cars to steel. These 137-foot long cars sat 160 straphangers and were articulated so riders could walk from one car to another via an enclosed passageway.
• The “Train of Many metals” included three types of vintage cars from 1948 and 1967: R10, the first use LAHT steel; R16, which was an updated R10 with electric doors instead of air-powered; and R38, the first subway fleet with air conditioning.
For more info, visit nytransitmuseum.org.
