I’ve mentioned a few times how I generally don’t like art museums. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which I included in this series, is an exception since it has many displays that go beyond the paintings and sculptures found in typical art museums. I especially loved The Met’s period interiors and furnishings from recreated rooms in old mansions.

On the other hand, I generally love train museums, especially the New York Transit Museum in Brooklyn. I’ve been here multiple times, and 2025 was my most recent visit. I had a love-hate relationship with subways when I was growing up in New York, but they gave me an all-important sense of freedom. For a regular teenager living in the suburbs, the car probably holds that special position. For a New Yorker, it was the subway.

The New York City subway started in 1904. The interior you see above is from one of the early trains. The Transit Museum is in an actual, now-unused subway station, and when you go down to the platform level, you can see a bunch of old subway cars. I wasn’t diligent enough to make notes of all the trains and their active service periods. All I can say for sure is that the first picture is from the oldest train and the last is the newest one on display.

The last picture, featuring the orange and red seats, was the most modern train and was in service when I lived in New York during the 1980s.

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