Fall Back

Just a friendly reminder that as of 2 a.m. today, those of us observing Daylight Savings Time must “fall back” an hour to Standard Time.

2090

After the Red Sox won, we noted that Yankees fans would have to ditch the “1918” chant. Yesterday I saw a suitable replacement: the Daily News sports headline had something along the lines of, “See you in 2090.” Twenty-Ninety has a ring to it . . .

Red Sox Win World Series

So I guess this means Yankees fans have to ditch that (charmingly) obnoxious “Nineteen Eighteen” chant . . . but on a more serious note, who let Jimmy Fallon on the field?

Happy Birthday, Mr. Subway

Today I had the pleasure of riding one of the vintage trains that the MTA trotted out to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the subway system. I was not the only geek waiting sheepishly as several standard S trains pulled out of Times Square, a small knot of mostly middle-aged men with fancy cameras and subway-themed attire tipped me off to the track that the vintage cars would pull into. The shuttle train is always short, and this one had only three cars. One was from 1940s, I think, with wicker seats and a pretty foreign-looking subway map. The middle car looked kinda 50s, with teardrop-shaped hangers and linoleum tile floor; the last was baby blue and was probably from the 60s. The coolest part was reading the ads – all vintage. My favorites were a Kool ad from the 60s with a smoking penguin (!) and a movie poster pitching Marlon Brando in The Wild One.

Many passengers seemed to know what was going on (they were announcing the centennial in all the stations all day, and it’s been a news story for months now with various museums putting up exhibitions), but a fair number were visibly amazed/confused. A group of teenagers sitting next to me were giddy, yelling “Yo, man, this is what you call a throwback car!” to no one in particular. An older woman to my left mumbled, “This makes me think I’m drunk.” I think the MTA should run these puppies more often.

“Tracking History of our Subways”

You have to love the Post’s adept turns of phrase. Oops — did I say the “Post”? I meant to say the Official Newspaper of the Subway’s Centennial Celebration.

Today’s special insert follows the story of the subway system, including an interactive site for aficionados.

The special section collects notable movies and songs relating to the subway and adds a nice “Did you Know?” portion including the following nuggets:

Early IND cars had light bulbs with reverse-screw threads to prevent passengers from stealing them for home use.

The first woman conductor was hired in 1917, when many men were overseas for WWI. They were dubbed conductorettes.

New York’s 468 stations are only 35 fewer than the combined total of all other subway systems in the country.

Frank Hedley, an early and influential subway executive who was born in England, introduced British spellings to the IRT. Everyone else had dispatchers. The IRT had despatchers.

A hat-grabbing fad developed in the 1920s. Mischievous riders would snatch hats off of men standing on the platform. The fad declined after a grabber was accidentally killed.

The longest ride (without a transfer to another train) is the 32.3-mile trip on the A train from 207th St. in Manhattan to Far Rockaway, in Queens.

The New York subway system has approximately 6,400 cars.

The day with the highest ridership was Dec. 23, 1946 when 8.87 million fares were collected.

New York’s subway system uses enough power annually to light the city of Buffalo for a year.

The F and G train stop at Smith and Ninth streets is the system’s highest station — 88 feet above street level.

The station which lies the deepest below ground is the 1 and 9 stop at 191st Street in Manhattan — 180 feet down.

There has never been an I, O, P, U, X or Y train. I and O were never used because they might be confused with numeral one and zero. P was likely skipped to prevent embarrassing travel directions like, “You can take a D at Columbus Circle, or you can take a —.” Well, you get the idea.

Before holding lights, dispatchers used a system of loud bells and gongs on the platform to signal the trains to leave. The last gong survived into the 1970s at the 111th Street station on the 7 line in Queens.

(Research assignment: What was going on December 23, 1946?)