New York Transit Museum

Warning, if you don’t like trains, you won’t like this post.

If, however, you’re the kind of person who’s been collecting model trains since toddlerhood and/or you have an actual toddler at home who’s really into them, then read on.

I’m keeping it light on text this week so that I can share some photos from a visit to the NYC Transit Museum in Brooklyn.

We took a trip to the museum over the winter and I’ve been meaning to share these pictures but a few things got in the way – winter storms, a Caribbean getaway, a triumphant return to the lake house and other report worthy events that had me donning my CNN news anchor hat.

That being said, the transport museum is a hidden gem. It takes a little more effort to get there if you’re in Manhattan, but the upside that you get the place to yourself. On the day we visited, we only bumped into two other groups of visitors.

I will admit that I was a teensy bit worried that we’d run into Jack the Ripper in the museum catacombs and have nobody to rescue us. But the ability to relax in empty Mad Men-era subway cars was well worth it.

To get into the museum, you enter just as you would any old subway station.

After a fascinating walk through a section that shares the subway’s history – photographs, tools, and plans, you end up by a set of old turnstiles. 

Sam thought that getting to sit in the driver’s seat in a few of the old buses was better than Christmas.

Other sights included a tiny streetcar replica.

But the old subway cars were the main attraction.

We spent a lot of time doing this…

Sam was such a gem and enjoyed his visit so much that on the way out, instead of our usual rush through the gift shop, we stopped, poked around a little, and got him a gift.

That would be the #2 train bear, who weeks later, still sleeps snugly at the end of his bed.

Hope everyone had a good week!