Two Sundays ago we checked out the New York Museum of Transportation, a tiny yet fun and really interesting little museum only open on Sundays way out in the country amid corn fields and railroad tracks that was once an abandoned dairy farm. We enjoyed an actual trolley and push car rides on the railroad, learned alot about old railroad stations and their tools, instruments, and legends, Morse code, telegraphs, and the Rochester Subway System, and toured many rail cars stocked with really great artifacts and wonderful stories of Rochester’s not too far gone past and how people on the rails communicated back then. If you’re looking for a really neat day trip for any history buffs or train enthusiasts, I’d highly suggest it…especially on a beautiful summer day or colorful autumn eve!
I couldn’t help but note that the Cincinnati subway ceased construction in 1928 after it was mostly built but before tracks were laid and it was ever actually put to use (as my favorite Ted shirt says – “The Cincinnati Subway – taking you nowhere since 1928”) and the Rochester subway started its operations in 1928. They were probably under construction during the exact same years…it’s just that one was canned due to cost and the other was completed. Also fascinating is that both Cincinnati and Rochester drained, reinforced and converted the already dug Erie Canal into their underground subway systems. And up until they filled in the Rochester subway recently (last year?), you could tour both abandoned subways. So thankful we were in the handful of the lucky few who got to tour Cincinnati’s subway! Abandoned canal-subways fascinate me.
Doesn’t this totally look like it used to be an amazing piece of scenery on a traveling circus car? I adore it!
