NYC Sentinel

The front window of the New York Transit Museum shows an array of subway-related merchandise. Photo courtesy of New York Transit Museum.

By Ruth Schneider

There’s a story behind every item sold in the New York Transit Museum Gallery and Annex. Roxanne Robertson knows most of them.

As the director of special projects at the Brooklyn museum, she’s familiar with all the merchandise in the store and handles the marketing of it. And as a self-admitted collector, she owns a number of the items sold in the shop — everything from the subway line-dotted galoshes to the cinch sack with a map of the subway line printed on it. For her, it’s about the nostalgia, a reminder of the days when she tucked two tokens into her loafers — one for the trip to her destination, and one for the ride back home.

“It evokes a time where life was a little more tangible and tactile,” she said.

The museum store, tucked in the back of the Metro-North terminal at Grand Central, attracts its fair share of people who revel in the mass transit nostalgia. But it also attracts little boys who pore of bins of track pieces trying to construct the tracks of their dreams. And tourists who enjoy the novelty of the city’s transportation infrastructure.

“I bought a Metrocard holder, a G magnet and a G bookmark,” said Chris Stephens, a Los Angeles native who was wandering through Grand Central when he spotted the store. The friend he is staying with for a couple days lives on the G line, he explained.

Micheal Raeburn, a tourist from London, left the store with a bag full of wooden train tracks and little subway cars for his 2 1/2 year old grandson back home.

“It’s something he won’t get in England,” he said.

Train cars are available for $9.95 each. Photo courtesy of New York Transit Museum

The 2,000-square-foot store buzzed Thursday morning as salespeople stocked the shelves with busloads of train sets, a popular item according to Robertson. Individual subway cars sell for $9.95 and bins of track provide individual pieces sold for as little as $1 apiece.

“Did you know there’s a standard gauge for train sets?” she said. “I just found that out this morning.” The Thomas the Tank Engine trains in the corner can be mixed and matched with subway cars and all ride the same wooden rails.

Robertson grabs a handbag made from recycled subway maps. “Each time we sell one of these, a tree gets planted.”

Florida-based online retailer ecoist.com makes the bags and takes care of planting the trees, said spokeswoman Lauren Daniels. She explained the process:

“We take the map, and hand cut, hand fold and hand sew it,” said Daniels. MTA sends the company its discontinued maps, and the company creates and entirely new product from the recycled paper. So far, 20,000 “trees for the future” have been planted in Haiti, Mexico, Uganda and India, said Daniels.

In the back of store, tossed in a box are the grab holds that spurred the nickname straphangers for subway riders. The grab holds, formerly installed in the trains, sell for $35 apiece.

It’s not the only previously used subway accoutrement available. MTA lists items as they are removed from the trains and stations. A pair of sliding subway doors goes for $175. And old subway tokens are sold in batches of 100. Depending on the coin, the prices for a lot ranges from $175 up to $500.

Or you can buy an old subway bench. “Can you imagine adding an authentic seat from the subway car to your home, work or office? The ‘oohhs’ and ‘ahhs’ you will get from your family, friends, co-workers and customers!” urges MTA’s paraphernalia Web site.

In addition to the items sold in the store, there is a small annex with rotating displays.

Mazel-Tov Moving and Storage workers spent Thursday morning pulling out the gallery’s old exhibit and preparing for the next one set to open Nov. 25. Workers carted out display cases and tables to make space for the Lionel Train exhibit installed annually for the holidays that follows the direct path between Manhattan and Santa’s home in the North Pole.

A cityscape is included in the annual Lionel Train holiday display. Photo courtesy of New York Transit Museum.

Robertson described the display as a multi-level experience enjoyable for both parents and children.

“Parents can look down and enjoy the skyline of Manhattan,” she said. And children still have plenty to see at their eye level, as subway cars race “underground,” and Metro-North, Long Island Rail Road and Pennsylvania Railroad cars race above on the multi-level spectacle.

Robertson is proud of the store and what it offers. “It’s more than buses and trains,” she said. “It’s about the individualized transportation experience.”

And some pretty nifty transit-related toys.