Time Travel, Anyone? Nostalgia Train Rides Every Sunday in December
The vintage subway train, featuring some cars as old as 90 years, will be running on normal subway tracks in Manhattan. Riders can take a 40-minute nostalgia ride for the price of an OMNY swipe.
| 25 Nov 2025 | 09:49
At the Second Avenue - Houston Street station on the F line, the Nostalgia Train ends another round trip, soon to wait for another journey uptown. At each end of the trips, there is usually a pause for picture taking. (
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Here’s a period ad aboard the train. Rye beach is still around, but the New York, Westchester, and Boston Railway—and its connecting trolleys to the Bronx subway stations—is long gone. The sign below the ad belongs to an era when NYC ran the subways, not the MTA. (
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No matter where the Holiday Nostalgia Train travels, the paparazzi are everywhere. Here at the East 96th Street - Second Avenue station, the northern end of the Q line, the train’s motorman looks amused at all the photographers taking his picture. (
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Festooned with holiday ornaments, the Nostalgia Train awaits another trip north at the Second Avenue and Houston Street station on the F line. The first round trip and the last one of the day tend to be the least crowded. (
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Here’s a straphanger’s view of when the 1930s combine with 2025. The riders probably haven’t changed that much, but now come armed with 21st-century technology. (
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All aboard! The vintage subway nostalgia train, featuring cars with rattan seats, incandescent light bulbs, paddle fans, old-time advertisements, and rolling rather than electronic signs, will be rolling through Manhattan every Sunday in December.
The Holiday Nostalgia Trains are the last operating remnants of 1,700 subway cars of a fleet that first began operating during the 1930s. Today, the eight surviving cars are kept in operating condition by NYC Transit.
And so, on Dec. 7, 14, 21, and 28, riders will have the opportunity to ride on the New York Transit Museum and MTA New York City’s Holiday Nostalgia Train for just the price of a Metrocard or OMNY subway ride.
You could make an entire day out of traveling between Second Avenue Station (at Houston Street) on the F line and 96th Street and Second Avenue on the Q line and back. Approximately a 40-minute ride in each direction, the sights, sounds, and smells are quite different from our normal subway rides. Your ride will be enhanced by ceiling fans, whistles (not horns like current trains) that announce each station arrival, and an enthusiastic cadre of Transit Museum volunteers and NYC Transit employees who negotiate the unusual equipment through busy subway lines, filled with regular scheduled Sunday subway trains.
It’s quite the balancing act.
Preserved as part of the New York Transit Museum’s collection, the eight vintage Independent Subway System (IND) cars on the train began to enter service on the Eighth Avenue line (today’s A/C/E) in 1932 and ran until 1977, when they were sidelined for newer equipment. Once the pride of the first subway company operated by the City of New York, the R1/9s used on the train evoke the IND’s Depression-era Art Deco aesthetic. Of special note, car 1575 runs in the middle of the train and was rebuilt from its original appearance in 1946. It became a testbed subway car with new interior and cosmetic features, and looks quite different from the rest of the train cars.
The Holiday Nostalgia Train equipment that you will ride in are the last operating remnants of 1,700 subway cars of that fleet, kept in operating condition by NYC Transit.
This year, the Train will operate on December Sundays, from Second Avenue – Houston Street on the uptown F line in Lower Manhattan at 10 a.m., noon, 2 p.m., and 4 p.m. The return trips from 96th Street – Second Avenue on the Q line will be at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m., and 5 p.m.
The Holiday Nostalgia Trains will stop in both directions at Second Avenue – Houston Street (F); Broadway – Lafayette Street (D, 6); West 4th Street – Washington Square (A/C/E, D/F); 34th Street – Herald Square (D/F, N/Q/R); 42nd Street – Bryant Park (A/C/E, D/F, N/Q/R, S, 7); 47th – 50th Streets – Rockefeller Center (D/F); 57th Street – Sixth Avenue (F); Lexington Avenue – 63rd Street (F, Q); 72nd Street – Second Avenue (Q); 86th Street – Second Avenue (Q); and 96th Street – Second Avenue (Q) stations.
Passengers can board the train at any of the stations.
Accessible stations along the route include Broadway – Lafayette Street (D, 6); West 4th Street – Washington Square (A/C/E, D/F); 34th Street – Herald Square (D/F, N/Q/R); 47th – 50th Streets – Rockefeller Center (D/F); Lexington Avenue – 63rd Street (F, Q); 72nd Street – Second Avenue (Q); 86th Street – SecondAvenue (Q); and 96th Street – Second Avenue (Q).
Please note for stops between Second Avenue –Houston Street and Lexington Avenue–63rd Street, board on the F-line platform. Stops between Lexington Avenue – 63rd Street and 96th Street – Second Avenue, board on the Q-line platform.
Like other octogenarians, timing, routes, and equipment of the train are subject to change.