BusTalk

[TTCBusbabe]

Vintage 'Nostalgia Train' to run V line subway service for holidays
BY PETE DONOHUE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Sunday, December 2nd 2007, 4:00 AM


As a kid growing up in Brooklyn, he spent his summers riding around the city with his father, a subway motorman on the IND line.

Now 41, Davis is a subway motorman, just like his father was, and has landed a gig that would make any rail fan envious. Sunday, he'll be at the controls of a vintage 1930s-40s subway train that NYC Transit is putting into service as a holiday treat for riders.

"It's a lifelong dream," Davis said.

The Nostalgia Train has wicker seats, ceiling fans and advertisements on the inside of its cars from when they were first put into service.

The train's cars are usually kept at the New York City Transit Museum in Brooklyn Heights but will be rolling between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., Sunday and the following four Sundays, along the V line between Queens Plaza and Second Ave.

Davis' dad operated the same type of subway trains - R9s. The series of train cars were retired in the 1970s.

"Ever since I was a little boy, I wanted to be motorman," Davis said. "When I was off from school on summer vacation, I would ride around the system with my dad. It was my job to carry his radio, lunch bag and tool bag."

After being trained to run today's more modern trains, Davis had to learn how to operate the more rudimentary R9s.

Compared with today's equipment, braking is more difficult because the rate of braking is not equal to the amount of pressure applied to the control, he said.

"It takes a keen sense of judgment," he explained. "It's all by feel and sound. You have to be more or less one with the train."

A small cadre of transit workers know how to operate the historic trains, and some will join Davis on the Nostalgia Train.

Making it even sweeter, he said, is that he'll have on his crew a buddy from the Bronx. Derek Sherry, who was in the same class as Davis when they were rookies in the late 1980s.

"He was 18, I was 20," Davis said. "It makes it a bigger pleasure to be able to do this with a guy who came into the TA with me when we were kids."

[Cyberider]

Good article and good news for New Yorkers.

Nice to see you back, TTCBusBabe!

[TTCBusbabe]

Thank You! Had a lot of things to iron out, great to be back!

[Mr. Linsky]

TCCBushbabe,

Great shots of the R4 (the last of the REAL subway cars).

I know its not # 1163 because I have one of the four porcelain number signs from that car.

It could be from Pullman Standard, Pressed Steel Car Company, American Car & Foundry (Berwick, Pa. plant) or St Louis Car Company (they were all made to exactly the same specification as drawn by the city).

Notice the solid brass window frames and the comfy stuffed cane seating (no longer available in this 'slice and dice' world!).

When we were kids we would ride the 'F' all the way from Union Turnpike in Kew Gardens to the end of the line which, at that time, was McDonald and Church in Brooklyn (that's where we got those great egg creams!).

These trains were noisy but as fast as speeding bullets!

I'm glad to see that one set was saved for posterity!

Thanks for sharing.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY

[Mr. Linsky]

An adendum to my R-4 note above;

The 'CITY OF NEW YORK' lettering, which was done in gold leaf when the cars were new, rapidly deteriortated with age and grime until they almost disappeared in the forties.

No attempt was ever made to restore them until this group made the preserved coach list.

Great nostalgia!

Pictured below is an R-4 train testing the 39/40 spur to the New York World's Fair in winter of 1938.

Photo borrowed for educational purposes only.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY

[Q65A]

I have lots of fond memories riding the R1-9's on the GG, E, and F trains.
The TM really has done a great job preserving these old veterans.