Transit Museum Is a Beloved Stop on the Gala Line

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

Subway-inspired style was subtle at last week’s New York Transit Museum gala, a black-tie affair held in both Vanderbilt Hall at Grand Central Terminal and the Grand Hyatt.

The director of the museum, Gabrielle Shubert, wore a gown in the color of 4-line green. There were some 2-line red bow-ties and handkerchiefs, and even some A, C, and E-line blue socks. The chairwoman of the Friends of the New York Transit Museum board, Susan Gilbert, said she’d spotted a subway-themed tie worn as a cummerbund.

Patrons Gerry Weinstein and Mary Habstritt weren’t necessarily chic, but certainly of the moment, pairing their fancy clothes with hard hats — a nod to all the ongoing subway construction.

The museum’s galas weren’t always so formal. The first such events, held about 20 years ago, were in the museum, which is located in a subway station in downtown Brooklyn.

“We’d have a buffet on the platforms,” a Friends board member, Stuart Leffler, who takes the A, C, 2, 3, and R lines every day, said.

Guests would load up paper plates with fried chicken and sit down to eat on the retired subway cars, amid rattan chairs, ceiling fans, and old advertisements.

“It was cool,” a board member, Nick Pantelides, said.

At the museum, visitors can examine turnstiles from the turn of the century to the present, or watch a video showing where all the money spent on mass transit gets counted (there’s still a lot of it, even though 38% of transactions are charged to debit and credit cards). Children and adults can take the wheel of a (stationary) city bus, and look at bus operators’ badges, old tokens, and a toy omnibus of the Broadway and Fourth Avenue line made in 1872.

“One of the purposes of the museum is to teach children how the subways work and, hopefully, eventually they’ll become engineers,” Mr. Pantelides, who takes the 4 train to work, said. “The system is a lot more complex than people realize.”

Marie and Jim Moriarty have visited the museum several times with their children, ages 12, 10, and 6. “They love running in and out of the trains,” Mrs. Moriarty said.

Some gala guests are already living the future of the subway system. Engineer Stephan Klein of Siemens AG is working on platform signs that tell riders when the next train is coming.

Testing has already begun, and the system will be in use by 2009, Mr. Klein said.

agordon@nysun.com

For additional photos of this event visit nysun.com and click the photos link.


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