13-12-22 PHOTOS: Nostalgia Day

After a...one, year absence I returned with much fanfare to the premier holiday event in the New York City Area, that's right, the Holiday Nostalgia Train. By now everyone here should know the details. Train of R1/9's running between 2nd Ave and Queens Plaza on a (V) (M), yaddie yaddie yadda. What really surprised me after my absence was 1) how much more crowded things were even at 10am when usually one could have a bit of personal space and 2) he seems to have been taken over by 1930's cosplayers who are either in the Steampunk set or the Hipster set...I couldn't tell.

Anyway, I didn't come all the way to NYC just to go and fight with people for space at the railfan window. This year I had a bit of a secondary mission planned in that I would visit and document the 51/52 automatic signal bridge on the LIRR Main Line just south of the Woodhaven Blvd station. Assisting me with both the Nostalgia Train and the LIRR excursion was fellow Subchatter and Nuclear Power gadfly, Phil Nasadowski.

All the photos of the Arnies and the Posities can be found here.

I begin my day at Chambers St where I shot a video montage of A, C and E trains until a northbound R32 trainset arrived to transport me to W. 4th St.


I eventually made my way to 2nd Ave where the Nostalgia Train arrived a bit later than it had in years past allowing only a few minutes before its 10:02 departure.


Even on the first trip of the last day some transit museum busy body violated the First Come First Serve system to let a bunch of kids stand at the front window and what was worse was that a number of parents used their little fuck trophies as shims to snag the remaining video capable positions so the best I could get on the northbound trip was this shot of the train relaying at Queens Plaza.


Here is the accompanying still.

At this point it was time to hit the LIRR. At the risk of spoiling the next few photos there were many trains, but they were all just plain old boring M7s. I swear they must be part of some MTA plot to deter photography.

There was this strange pattern of constant trains for 20 or so minutes, then nothing for 40.

Since all the trains looked the same I stopped taking pictures and just went with a video montage.


Arriving back at the station in time for the next southbound departure the Nostalgia train appeared to be experiencing some delays, but eventually showed up.


Due to the aforementioned problems with the front window I settled for an uninterrupted rear window video when I eventually got back to Queens Plaza.


Back at 2nd Ave I finally managed to get a proper still portrait of car #100.

Around the conductors position some of the better cosplayers had attracted a literal photo mob.

On the rear car of the train some joker had hung a CTA destination sign on car #1300.

I actually bothered to record a full walk through the train and then back up along the platform to capture the crazy mood of the whole event.


On board the train I caught this guy giving Phil's Bolex a run for its money with a 1950's Polaroid equipped with a flash that could send King Kong on a rampage.

On the trip back to W4th St I hung out at the conductor's station to grab some video of the classic method of door operation.


Conductor hanging out between cars #1802 and #1000.

In our parting shot we see the conductor closing up at W4th and watching out to make sure that nobody is being dragged.


Well thanks for watching and tune in next time for my coverage of SEPTA Mid-Winter Trip XIII.