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Training day: A series of vintage trains from
the early 20th century will set off from the
Brighton Beach station on Sept. 28 and 29.
James Giovan courtesy of the New York Transit Museum
All aboard!
Vintage train exhibit chugs into Brighton Beach
COURIER LIFE, SEPT. 20-26, 2019 43
By Rose Adams Take a ride down memory train!
Antique subway cars will
transport riders to the early
20th century later this month, shuttling
passengers on round-trip rides from
Brighton Beach Station for the swipe
of a MetroCard. The New York Transit
Museum’s “Parade of Trains” event,
coming to Brighton Beach for its fifth year
on Sept. 28 and 29, will showcase four
trains spanning six decades of New York
City history.
One of the featured antiques, the
Brooklyn Rapid Transit elevated car,
is among the oldest in the Museum’s
collection — the 1903 train was the
first motorized subway in the borough,
and carried passengers in wooden cars
equipped with metal gates, with then-newfangled
electric lights hanging overhead..
The elevated transport is not only
among the oldest in the city — it is one
of the oldest in the country, said the
Museum’s director.
“We are extremely fortunate to have
some of the oldest rolling stock in the
U.S. that still rolls,” said Concetta
Bencivenga. “And what better way to
ensure that remains the case than to
bring the heart of the Museum to the
rails in Brighton Beach?”
Three other trains will join the 1903
train cars in transporting visitors to
different eras in the subway’s history, from
1910 to 1960.
One of the four trains will set off every
few minutes from the Brighton Beach
Station, either making a short round trip
to Ocean Parkway and back (one station
away), or taking a longer trip to Kings
Highway (four stations away) — although
the doors will only open at Brighton Beach.
The event will be a sort of
homecoming for the locomotives, many
of which originally rode along Brighton
Beach’s shoreline.
In 1877, a local transit company built
elevated train lines in Coney Island and
Brighton Beach, shuttling visitors to and
from the island’s resorts, according to
subway historians. The original Brighton
Beach Station, built in 1878, was one of the
steam train stops, and remains one of the
borough’s oldest subway terminals.
Between rides, history buffs will be
able to visit the Transit Museum’s stand
inside the Brighton Beach Station, where
they can get information on the trains,
as well as free temporary tattoos, which
will depict vintage trains, buses , and
conductors ’ badges.
“Parade of Trains” at Brighton Beach
Station on Brighton Beach Avenue
between Brighton Sixth and Brighton
Seventh streets. (718) 694–1600. www.
nytransitmuseum.org. Sept. 28 and 29; 11
a.m.–4 p.m. $2.75.
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