I remember one night at the 42nd street station. Sitting in the bench waiting for our train to come. Once it arrived we got on and my best friend left her purse on the bench. We banged on those doors like mad people for them to open the door. So This guy picked up her purse and looked at us in a panic at the doors, he pretended like he was going to run but he nicely waved the conductor ...... I guess and they opened the doors and he gave her the purse. I will never forget that and in those days we had what we thought was money......you know living at home still with your own job and no bills. Our little Gucci purses weren't empty , but we were all grateful to that brother.
Yes, the city was grimy. But the morals and ethics were in tact. Now, they have cleaned up. But unfortunately, they took away the morals , and ethics along with it...
oh hell yeah. if the subways were anything, they were interesting! Filthy, uncomfortable, the AC worked on almost none of the trains; but man, that was real new york as far as I'm concerned. I loved it. I still love it now, but--well, it's just not the same.
I was 11 , my moms was a single parent raising 4 kids in the hoods of QNS., a native Puerto Rican woman who’s 5ft tall leaving the Bronx to QUEENS for a better life . These were scary times regardless. Big shout to my moms for outlasting it. Te quiero madre.
UA-camrs,not only should you enjoy the visuals but pay close attention to the fantastic stereo audio soundtrack.The majority of the sounds you hear no longer exist on the subway system(e.g.doors,straight air release,steel brakes)not to mention the excessive noise.The system is less noisy today,take it from yours truly,an actual NYCT train operator.Great Vid.Thaks for posting!
Thank you for this Archive footage and I mean that from the bottom of my heart. This is the NY I knew growing up. Even though I was only about 5 years old at the time you filmed this, it brings back my early memories of the struggle an when people worked even harder for what they obtained to have a good life. Brings back my childhood memories of riding the 4 to Bedford Park when my mother was enrolled at Lehman college. God bless you! Thank you!
Hz ua-cam.com/video/pA6cEF6S_XE/v-deo.html Fire 🔥 #straight outta high school teen rapper Lil #Tribeca songs is on the #come up and fast check it out bro swipe the link #Bronx kingsbridge freestyle #Brooklyn 4train pain
Yeah , especially the older IND 6th/8th Ave Subway..had that distinguishable, unique, hot/electrolyzed traction motor/door motor oil smell..like being close to burning-up..Can still smell it in my minds memory!! Would waft up out of gratings as a train approached, or out of the staircase "moleholes"..!!
Awesome!!! I was 29 back then, so I remember this vividly. It was my generation that started the graffiti thing on the subways. For those too young to remember, the trains were really loud back then and the screeching brake noise was out of this world. The stations were not as hot because a lot of the trains were not air conditioned, however by 1986 the trains were more so. At this time the graffiti era was about to end as you see the refurbished trains in red bird color scheme. Many of the trains here were about to be retired (the ones from the Times Square portion), to be replaced by the R-62. By 1988, almost all trains on the then 1/9 line and 3 line were R-62. All the number 2 trains were refurbished as red birds. As far as the trains of the A/K sequence, they were also to be refurbished shortly after. By early 1988, the R-38s shown here resembled the trains recently retired. The R44/R46 lost the blue stripe by 1990. Also the R-68 was about to be introduced. This video captures the end of an era that began in the early 70s (with regards to the graffiti). After May 12, 1989 there was no graffiti on any of the subway cars throughout the system.
thats awesome man , todaysmost of us young graff writers look at your generation as kings , well me and my bro at least lol , totally missed this era being born in 91 but videos like this really help to show how it was then and i can tell that by 86 it was mostly over. lots of trains are clean already in this video, most i remember is being a young kid and seeing the highways in Nj and nyc being heavily bombed. wish i was able to experience this era in person.
Yes most of the graffiti originated in the yards. There were quick tags done in some stations, perhaps at the end of the lines. Inside tagging could have also occurred in yards if it was possible to get inside the trains, otherwise probably during train rides most likely near terminal points.
Back in the 70s there was a fiscal crisis in NYC, but also a prevailing attitude that the city was out of control. I remember guys riding the elevators in the WTC when it was under construction, in one instance they threw a pack of firecrackers out the elevator door to scare the workers. Look at the videos if the 1977 World Series with guys hanging on the walls. When I was in high school some classmates went to a Mets playoff game in 1973 and came home on the subway dragging sod from the field. How about the 1977 blackout. Broad daylight prostitution. In 1976 I remember a pickup truck with girls in bikinis advertising a new cathouse in the Wall Street area driving down that street in mid afternoon. Also the many building fires, etc. Subway graffiti was just part of the bigger picture.
Amazing how all these folks managed to live without a cell phone in their hand every minute of the day. These videos make me feel like an old man as I sit here wishing I could transport back to the time when this was shot.
Im too dang young, but I have a small collection of transit tokens, and all I can say is that I can't understand why someone could hate them. Oh sure, a card is more convenient, but a token just has more charisma, and feels better in your hand. I remember as a kid, taking the MBTA subways in Boston... not the same experience, but the cars are older than NYCs current "modern" cars. Again, things just keep losing charisma as they get "improved". The only thing better about things now, for me, is that I'm getting support in school for my needs, something that I'd never have received anywhere in the country, back then. Still, we've lost so much... you can't even ask to ride in the cab of a train, can't get through school with bad grades, street art and urban exploring aren't nearly as easy with all the regulations and stuff (I don't do street art, but I absolutely love it), heck, everyone these days throws a fit if you just go for a stroll down a railroad track... c'mon, no matter how much people are regulated, the problem causes will just find another way, and the rest of us who didn't do any harm just keep loosing all the fun in life.
The amount of graffiti inside and outside of the train is crazy! The last time I went on the NYC subway was on '87 and I really want to see what it looks like today!
it's just stainless steel no graffiti if someone was to write it, they could easily clean it off,plus with all the cops and cameras no one could write anything on trains
In this video theres not much graffiti compared to before cause the big buffing time had already started.. In 70s and 80s begging there was much more graffiti.
Versus the pics and video clips I've seen of NYC from the 80s, today's NYC is a lot more clean and sanitized. Only been there twice(2009 and 2013), but it's nothing like how pictures and video clips showed it being like in the 1980s. I wish I could jump into a time machine, and see what NYC from past decades was like!
I miss the 80's and early 90's really bad. Although I have never been to NYC, this is exactly how I pictured it at the time. I was 12 at the time of this filming, what NYC looked like. Thank you so much for sharing this with us.
I've been going thru that station since I was in my teens(I'm 55 now) - at least the NYC subways are no longer the grimy, dimly-lit spaces as seen here. People may grumble about another fare increase, but the NYC subways have come a long way since that graffiti-ridden time and and renovations to stations have had great results (such as the 74th Street - Broadway Station in Jackson Heights, Queens - quite stunning for a subway hub). this video definitey reminds me of how scary subways used 2 b
Y'all niggas realize that you took time to look down at your screens to criticize other people for looking at their screens the same goddamn way, right
@@Sonicxis4ever Well, there was still service life left in those older..better..cars. So in service they stayed till they reached the end of useable service time. Then newer cars were ordered, older ones were taken out-of-service and scrapped, reefed, or sold to rail museums..
Mehh T It was filthy and smelly, but we got used to it and took us wherever we needed to go, and it wasn't too expensive like it is now. Back then you didn't see as many fights as you see today, not even close. Today we have a different generation of kids that think starting a fight and posting it on YT is cool. They're a bunch of pea brains.
I always wanted to live in NYC from the time I was a young girl. Except for a few brief visits, I never got close to accomplishing my goal. Finally did a trial run of 2 months, just to see if I still wanted to do it. So much preparation and cost to do this, but Somehow by the end, I wasn't blown away like I thought it would be. There was nothing out-of-this-world sensational about it. Nothing that would make me want to pick up everything and move. It put me into a mild funk because I couldn't figure out why I no longer wanted something I had wanted my whole life. I had been so excited at the beginning of my time there. Reading these comments helped me to understand that the city I learned about as a girl had completely been stripped of any and all of it's character. There's no flavor. It's bland. It's Disney-fied. Sure there are things there that are nowhere else, but the vibe is all fucked up now. It's so depressing. By the end of my time there, out of everything I saw and did, my favorite thing was to ride the subway trains. Maybe the graffiti was missing, but the stations are still dirty and the rhythmic clack is the same. And when I got back home to my 3 bedroom house with a yard and a pool and my car, I WAS NEVER SO GRATEFUL IN MY WHOLE GODDAMN LIFE!! If you live in a big city (I do), you're experiencing gentrification and it's fucking everything up so you go to Whole Foods on Westheimer Road and you go to Whole Foods on Houston Street and it is the SAME THING. :(
NYC was voted greatest city in the world dumbass. You can keep your boring country farm town. NYC is crime ridden right now. And there is still graffiti on the trains, that whole Disneyland thing you're talking about is complete bunk! NYC is more exciting than your shithole town. And NYC is the most visited city in the country you fucking idiot.
Yeah it might have been worth putting up w the city in the 70’s and 80’s because it had character and a great night life and music. All the interesting people can’t afford it.
Grew up in NYC , and worked for NYCT From 1989-2019 , saw lots during that time … I remember the blackouts of 1977 , and 2003 . 9-11-01which we won’t ever forget , can’t believe it will be 20 years in a few days since that horrible day . Great footage of the subways in this video .
+Richard Head Detroit's beautiful though, historic architecture is not forcing people to sell drugs and kill each other. I don't know why developers think that.
na na I don't deny reality . there's more to reality than what we are made to think .. ever heard of the saying ..you were born an original don't die copy
@@swiftkarma4436 no not really you could actually roam around the 80s without a 1000s cameras and kooks with narc phones tracking devices and social engineering media
This is WILD! My first time in NYC was 1998 ... and I moved here this January. Cannot believe how graffiti-ed the trains and on the inside too. I'm in this station on an almost daily basis, so its amazing to see it in "another life". The signage is all different, yet I still recognize it. Thank you for this!
cell phones didnt become widely used until the mid to late 90s. even then they werent smart phones so people werent staring at them. this only started in the late 2000s
I was just 16 years old when i immigrated to the U.S in 88 , the city has definitely come a long way . This video just brings back really nice memories, i am happy and thankful to have been able to witness the transformation of New York City .👍🏻
I wish I could have been alive to experience this NYC. I go often now, and I very much love it, but I can't help but feel like this was a better New York.
It WAS definitely a better New York. Grittier, yes. Did we get mugged a lot? Yes. But there was art and music and a lot more happening. It was not the exclusive rich condo chain hell that it is now.
@@KaptainKerl ""Important news took weeks to reach you" LOL Are you on crack? These were the 80's not the middle ages. And instead of people constantly staring at their phones they were actually socializing in real life.
We kept it pretty gully over in SF, like the west coast mini NYC especially around the tenderloin, downtown, soma, and our transit system was also straight destroyed with graffiti in the 80s and into the 90s, the golden days of seeing a bus roll down the street with like 15 of your friends names tagged on the side so you gotta run up and add yours. Not as hardcore as the NY MTA trains, but still fun. They locked most of the metro trains inside the indoor barn so only the buses were exposed outdoors. You can go walk through the tenderloin still in 2020 and i bet it will take you back to that NYC vibes lol, crack smoking in public, drug deals everywhere, pissin on the street etc..
As an MTA worker, i was stationed at the Times Square stationin 1986.than along came Disney and killed the whike neighborhood.tbe Times Square lighting shop was ripped away to make room for a stairway.Great capture ,you really brought me back. .
you can feel the disconnect without cellphones and internet. Made life more mysterious and interesting to live. Being so connected these days creates to many shortcuts and therefore many times we overlook the beauty of what lies in the inbetween
I lived in Brooklyn in 1986. Clinton-Washington Avenue stop, which then was then the CC local. My gosh remembrance of the grit, grime, graffiti, tokens for .75 cents, and jumping those turnstiles...
I was there, Freshman year of high school, 1986. I travelled those same trains, same station at that time, every day, changing from the N to the 1 train and back again. I remember that newsstand, those halls before the Times Square station was later rebuilt. All that graffiti right before it was cleaned up, those turnstyles before the hard-to-jump ones were installed. Tokens! You could buy fake "slugs" for 50 cents each (half price). No more K train! The subways were a lot more empty then than they became later (pre-pandemic). I looked but didn't spot myself in the film... What a time capsule!
The best time to ride the subways was the late 60s: they still had the old IND R 1-9s, and many of the newer stainless cars mixed in. The only graffiti was Taki 183 on the IRT, this is where it all started. Meanwhile, on the A train, the R-10 Thunderbirds in blue and white livery represented the 1940s.
I grew up hooked on style wars, breakdancing, deejaying and all the old greats from juice crew to the golden age of rap. Went to an audio engineering school in NYC at the time nas dropped "hip hop is dead" and so much of the culture had vanished at that point(2006). Interning all year at the fat beats record store/label was a dream though and I would not take back that experience for anything.
i'm kind obssesed with this year 'cause i was born in 1986 and i was looking for something interesting on you tube and i found your video, it is amazing i loved it so much!
You know whats crazy is that the subway stations still look the same all these years later. Trains are cleaner now. Very interesting and captivating film to watch.
One of the trains this video is an R32. I used to ride these on the C train to work everyday. The heaters under the seat worked great in winter. They just retired these in 2020. Can you believe that? Over 50 years of service. Hopefully, they’ll add one to the transit museum so I can go and visit an old friend 🙂
Really takes me back to the 80s & 90s. Rode the subway from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back every day. 25 years later I still dream about running after my train. LOL
I don't know which is more nostalgia-inducing: the black-on-white station signage, the subway car graffiti...or the "token clerks" actually selling tokens!
Wwwwwooooowwww 4:38 that was a BEAUTIFUL car with window down Kaze / West pieces and a top 2 bottom BBoy character all the way at the rightmost end covering the conductors booth which happened to be running on the 3 line that day but should have been a 1 Broadway local initially. It’s pretty faded already here but that’s a famous car. Incredible specimen of NY history captured right here.
Lmao I lived in NYC all my life and I have never even heard of a K train. I wonder if people are taping us secretly so the kids of the future can see this lmaoooo I would love to look back when im like 50 something years old and remember what the city use to be like back in my day. This video shows my moms day and my dads day lmaoo
The first K Train was discontinued in the 1970's, it ran a route similar to how the M Train runs today (Broadway Brooklyn/6 Av Local), but this is the 1980's version of the K Train that ran as an 8 Av Local (formerly the AA Train) that ran from 168 Street to the World Trade Center in Manhattan.
In the mid-nineties I noticed several instances of the K train logo being present on some signs at different stations. This was usually seen right above the entrance to a subway station as you were going down the steps. I also noticed one or two stations that still had the AirTrain (airplane) logo. Even to this day, if you look really closely at some of the signs right above the steps that lead down into the subway you can see the black imprint from the previous K train logo.
I was born the year this was made... It would be cool if this person was filming in 1976 too! I'm absolutely fascinated by the old new york and I am jealous of all of you who got to live through it!
Wow no smart phones everyones looking forward. . Smoking in underground stations. Same train cars we have. I was 9. Nice to see. Good quality video by the way, givin the era
I was a conductor for 30 years in nyc subways. The 80s had a lot of crime in the subway. It was not a fun place to work, today's subway is like Disneyland compared to then. All those subway cars that your seeing in this video with the exception of the r- 32 , have gone to the scrap yard
crack cocaine epidemic, right ?!….from about 86 to 1992ish...destroyed thousands of lives, families, businesses ….the amount of crime was crazy in any inner city in the usa !!
Wow this person was filming with a big camera on his shoulder. Little did he know this was going to end up on something crazy called "UA-cam"
Is interesting this video was taken back in 1986 uploaded in 2011 and until 2020 UA-cam recommended this to me
NoSoy Piricuaco haha
back to the fiture
The crazy part was that he didn't get mugged for his camera, and got to keep the footage
@@AlbertAbeijon everyone didn't get mugged all the time
I remember one night at the 42nd street station. Sitting in the bench waiting for our train to come. Once it arrived we got on and my best friend left her purse on the bench. We banged on those doors like mad people for them to open the door. So This guy picked up her purse and looked at us in a panic at the doors, he pretended like he was going to run but he nicely waved the conductor ...... I guess and they opened the doors and he gave her the purse. I will never forget that and in those days we had what we thought was money......you know living at home still with your own job and no bills. Our little Gucci purses weren't empty , but we were all grateful to that brother.
Tee L I love these little anecdotes thankyou :)
great story!
nice story
times have changed - today you are more afraid of trigger happy cops than you are of muggers & thieves
Yes, the city was grimy. But the morals and ethics were in tact. Now, they have cleaned up. But unfortunately, they took away the morals , and ethics along with it...
Wow. You guys got very lucky. Thank god.
This is more interesting than most feature films made today.
Allan Fisch absolutely true. I fucking love the 80s.
LOL :D True
I could watch this all day long. 365 days a year
Lol. I know
oh hell yeah. if the subways were anything, they were interesting! Filthy, uncomfortable, the AC worked on almost none of the trains; but man, that was real new york as far as I'm concerned. I loved it. I still love it now, but--well, it's just not the same.
This looks like the beginning of a good 80s movie..
Very :)
a horror movie
@@LockedPig 90s horror movie but 80s regular action thriller movie.😭😂
How bout the opening credits on Night Court ...
Like, for example, the warriors?
I was 11 , my moms was a single parent raising 4 kids in the hoods of QNS., a native Puerto Rican woman who’s 5ft tall leaving the Bronx to QUEENS for a better life . These were scary times regardless. Big shout to my moms for outlasting it. Te quiero madre.
Bello. 🙏👏👍💪
UA-camrs,not only should you enjoy the visuals but pay close attention to the fantastic stereo audio soundtrack.The majority of the sounds you hear no longer exist on the subway system(e.g.doors,straight air release,steel brakes)not to mention the excessive noise.The system is less noisy today,take it from yours truly,an actual NYCT train operator.Great Vid.Thaks for posting!
That was an another world.
this is on the past,in the future,people started getting older and dying. and it was the past that they used the old turnstiles.
The whole World was different bevore 11.9
And Zionist Jews made it happen!
why
..my world. I left in 1986 and this way will stay in my heart always, the real NYC
Thank you for this Archive footage and I mean that from the bottom of my heart. This is the NY I knew growing up. Even though I was only about 5 years old at the time you filmed this, it brings back my early memories of the struggle an when people worked even harder for what they obtained to have a good life. Brings back my childhood memories of riding the 4 to Bedford Park when my mother was enrolled at Lehman college. God bless you! Thank you!
I was 25
I was 10. Wow, In forgot all about the beep and the announcement for the closing doors .
My mother also went to Lehman :)
Eric Brooks it sure does bring back memories, sometimes i miss that old NY society.
john creator same here.. these kids now a days talk about how dangerous the city is..I laugh
OMG i can smell that 1986 NYC subway from here, now, thru the internet in 2019!
Anthony David Sabarro pizza and pee
Hz ua-cam.com/video/pA6cEF6S_XE/v-deo.html
Fire 🔥 #straight outta high school teen rapper Lil #Tribeca songs is on the #come up and fast check it out bro swipe the link #Bronx kingsbridge freestyle #Brooklyn 4train pain
Its smells like a dirty restroom
Yeah , especially the older IND 6th/8th Ave Subway..had that distinguishable, unique, hot/electrolyzed traction motor/door motor oil smell..like being close to burning-up..Can still smell it in my minds memory!! Would waft up out of gratings as a train approached, or out of the staircase "moleholes"..!!
@@coastercrafter1productions300 Maybe now, not then. Smelled like electrolyzed traction motor lubrication, door engine oil, IND Divid ion.
Spray paint industry must have been booming in the early 80's
They stole the paint mostly.
@Stranded NYer You must remember they made paint proof cars but the kids just ended up scratching their tags into the plastic.
I love how trains entered stations really fast back then.
You wouldn’t like it if you got hit by one.
They still do sometimes
Awesome!!! I was 29 back then, so I remember this vividly. It was my generation that started the graffiti thing on the subways. For those too young to remember, the trains were really loud back then and the screeching brake noise was out of this world. The stations were not as hot because a lot of the trains were not air conditioned, however by 1986 the trains were more so. At this time the graffiti era was about to end as you see the refurbished trains in red bird color scheme. Many of the trains here were about to be retired (the ones from the Times Square portion), to be replaced by the R-62. By 1988, almost all trains on the then 1/9 line and 3 line were R-62. All the number 2 trains were refurbished as red birds. As far as the trains of the A/K sequence, they were also to be refurbished shortly after. By early 1988, the R-38s shown here resembled the trains recently retired. The R44/R46 lost the blue stripe by 1990. Also the R-68 was about to be introduced. This video captures the end of an era that began in the early 70s (with regards to the graffiti). After May 12, 1989 there was no graffiti on any of the subway cars throughout the system.
thats awesome man , todaysmost of us young graff writers look at your generation as kings , well me and my bro at least lol , totally missed this era being born in 91 but videos like this really help to show how it was then and i can tell that by 86 it was mostly over. lots of trains are clean already in this video, most i remember is being a young kid and seeing the highways in Nj and nyc being heavily bombed. wish i was able to experience this era in person.
How did they go about spraying graffiti on the subway and especially inside? When the trains were sitting in the train yard?
Also why was the city so lax on allowing graffiti to be sprayed on the subways in the 70s and 80s?
Yes most of the graffiti originated in the yards. There were quick tags done in some stations, perhaps at the end of the lines. Inside tagging could have also occurred in yards if it was possible to get inside the trains, otherwise probably during train rides most likely near terminal points.
Back in the 70s there was a fiscal crisis in NYC, but also a prevailing attitude that the city was out of control. I remember guys riding the elevators in the WTC when it was under construction, in one instance they threw a pack of firecrackers out the elevator door to scare the workers. Look at the videos if the 1977 World Series with guys hanging on the walls. When I was in high school some classmates went to a Mets playoff game in 1973 and came home on the subway dragging sod from the field. How about the 1977 blackout. Broad daylight prostitution. In 1976 I remember a pickup truck with girls in bikinis advertising a new cathouse in the Wall Street area driving down that street in mid afternoon. Also the many building fires, etc. Subway graffiti was just part of the bigger picture.
Warriors...come out and playeeeeayyyy!!!
No elevators & I think no access a ride. Guess the handicapped transported via ambulette
Wow back in the days of tokens!@!
People dressed nicer then
CC & GG train era
The subway was cleaner then too
I was young but I remember this NYC.
Amazing how all these folks managed to live without a cell phone in their hand every minute of the day. These videos make me feel like an old man as I sit here wishing I could transport back to the time when this was shot.
the only thing I miss was the cheap fare and token. remember when u can buy snacks and drinks with tokens
a token was worth $1.25 in the store when I was growing up
+richie bee Wow. That's pretty cool.
The tokens and people jumping the turnstiles.
I remember in high school the fare was 95 cents using tokens. It was train ride or a slice of pizza with soda for the same price
Teenage UA-camrs pay very close attention to this video because there are sights and sounds in it that no longer exist in the NYC Subway system.
Onix Navarro i prefer my card. i dont wanna carry tokens full of germs that everyone has touched
Im too dang young, but I have a small collection of transit tokens, and all I can say is that I can't understand why someone could hate them. Oh sure, a card is more convenient, but a token just has more charisma, and feels better in your hand. I remember as a kid, taking the MBTA subways in Boston... not the same experience, but the cars are older than NYCs current "modern" cars. Again, things just keep losing charisma as they get "improved". The only thing better about things now, for me, is that I'm getting support in school for my needs, something that I'd never have received anywhere in the country, back then. Still, we've lost so much... you can't even ask to ride in the cab of a train, can't get through school with bad grades, street art and urban exploring aren't nearly as easy with all the regulations and stuff (I don't do street art, but I absolutely love it), heck, everyone these days throws a fit if you just go for a stroll down a railroad track... c'mon, no matter how much people are regulated, the problem causes will just find another way, and the rest of us who didn't do any harm just keep loosing all the fun in life.
I miss the brakes screeching metal on metal,
Yes esp. in the areas with the train in the air, you could hear it 2 blocks away.
@Richard Head thankyou
The amount of graffiti inside and outside of the train is crazy! The last time I went on the NYC subway was on '87 and I really want to see what it looks like today!
it's just stainless steel no graffiti if someone was to write it, they could easily clean it off,plus with all the cops and cameras no one could write anything on trains
In this video theres not much graffiti compared to before cause the big buffing time had already started.. In 70s and 80s begging there was much more graffiti.
Versus the pics and video clips I've seen of NYC from the 80s, today's NYC is a lot more clean and sanitized. Only been there twice(2009 and 2013), but it's nothing like how pictures and video clips showed it being like in the 1980s. I wish I could jump into a time machine, and see what NYC from past decades was like!
Evelyn N. It is now clean and in ocean but if u want to see it now u need swim suit and a tank of air so u are ready to see
@@trapgodnah9022 lies its a shit hole
I’m sitting here during the covid-19 pandemic at 1:25 AM Toronto time on May 19, 2020 watching this
Full marks fr mentioning exact time.
I'm sitting here during the Covid 19 pandemic May 22, 2020 Las Vegas time 1:47 pm.
@Jennifer M Nice to meet you; you wanna become friends?
@@realamazingworld6756 yes!
@@aarons5201 imagine that.
I miss the 80's and early 90's really bad. Although I have never been to NYC, this is exactly how I pictured it at the time. I was 12 at the time of this filming, what NYC looked like. Thank you so much for sharing this with us.
1986 i entered this world 32 years later and im watching this awesome video with 86% battery that's crazy life is fast enjoy every moment of it.
Despite all the graffiti and general neglect of the platforms there is a sort of calm and orderliness about the passengers that you don’t see today.
I've been going thru that station since I was in my teens(I'm 55 now) - at least the NYC subways are no longer the grimy, dimly-lit spaces as seen here. People may grumble about another fare increase, but the NYC subways have come a long way since that graffiti-ridden time and and renovations to stations have had great results (such as the 74th Street - Broadway Station in Jackson Heights, Queens - quite stunning for a subway hub). this video definitey reminds me of how scary subways used 2 b
Yeah, now you just have to worry about getting robbed, stabbed, or pushed in front of a moving train when riding the subway. Good times!
@@frankgrimesification Just like today some things never change.
How strange & fascinating to watch a world without cell phones... or even headphones!
nice video, it was interesting to watch!!!
I agree 👍
jose mñwuel
Wow people are actually looking up as they walk.
These times are so annoying and generic looking with everyone constantly glancing at their phones every second.
I never realize this wow
I know right!? Its amazing!
people still do that you complete dumbass lol
Y'all niggas realize that you took time to look down at your screens to criticize other people for looking at their screens the same goddamn way, right
Such a blast from the past. We always love to see older footage on New York. So cool. Thanks
back when that town had character. those days are gone. sad.
As the subways and trains are destroyed by graffiti. Lots of character.
It still does. But the characters are all criminals, crackheads and homeless
Absolutely true story 🎉❤
Trust me, there's still character. Go enjoy a day at Coney Island!
@@chickenringNYC nah. left that town 20 years ago. place totally changed. you couldn’t pay me to live there again
The audio is extraordinary. Makes me feel like I'm on the platform.
Absolutely nobody:
New Yorkers when they go anywhere outside of NYC: “I need this to help me sleep”
Facts
Yup u can sleep to this
🤫
I love It! Great memories of a grittier New York City than now.
Yeah nyc is a mess!!! Can’t believe they still had those old trains
Remember when pizza had cheese dripping and thick pepperonis!!!!! Italian Icees with real rum....
@@Sonicxis4ever Well, there was still service life left in those older..better..cars. So in service they stayed till they reached the end of useable service time. Then newer cars were ordered, older ones were taken out-of-service and scrapped, reefed, or sold to rail museums..
I wish I got to witness New York when it was like this. I don't know why, I just prefer it.
You don't want to be in New York in the 80s trust me.
Bongo Head blah
Mehh T It was filthy and smelly, but we got used to it and took us wherever we needed to go, and it wasn't too expensive like it is now. Back then you didn't see as many fights as you see today, not even close. Today we have a different generation of kids that think starting a fight and posting it on YT is cool. They're a bunch of pea brains.
***** True, but not as bad as back then.
+Bruni what no it's not
dear god this is freaking awesome. seriously this is made my day thank you for putting this together
Imagine this place filled with Mets fans after they won the World Series that year
I always wanted to live in NYC from the time I was a young girl. Except for a few brief visits, I never got close to accomplishing my goal. Finally did a trial run of 2 months, just to see if I still wanted to do it. So much preparation and cost to do this, but Somehow by the end, I wasn't blown away like I thought it would be. There was nothing out-of-this-world sensational about it. Nothing that would make me want to pick up everything and move. It put me into a mild funk because I couldn't figure out why I no longer wanted something I had wanted my whole life. I had been so excited at the beginning of my time there.
Reading these comments helped me to understand that the city I learned about as a girl had completely been stripped of any and all of it's character. There's no flavor. It's bland. It's Disney-fied. Sure there are things there that are nowhere else, but the vibe is all fucked up now. It's so depressing. By the end of my time there, out of everything I saw and did, my favorite thing was to ride the subway trains. Maybe the graffiti was missing, but the stations are still dirty and the rhythmic clack is the same.
And when I got back home to my 3 bedroom house with a yard and a pool and my car, I WAS NEVER SO GRATEFUL IN MY WHOLE GODDAMN LIFE!! If you live in a big city (I do), you're experiencing gentrification and it's fucking everything up so you go to Whole Foods on Westheimer Road and you go to Whole Foods on Houston Street and it is the SAME THING. :(
NYC was voted greatest city in the world dumbass. You can keep your boring country farm town. NYC is crime ridden right now. And there is still graffiti on the trains, that whole Disneyland thing you're talking about is complete bunk! NYC is more exciting than your shithole town. And NYC is the most visited city in the country you fucking idiot.
Yeah it might have been worth putting up w the city in the 70’s and 80’s because it had character and a great night life and music. All the interesting people can’t afford it.
actual time machine
Thank you for sharing this. I lived in NYC from 1985-1989. Good memories.
Wow, that's great footage!
I always ask to go back to the 80s. Now I just stepped into a time portal. Crazy.... 😎
Grew up in NYC , and worked for NYCT From 1989-2019 , saw lots during that time … I remember the blackouts of 1977 , and 2003 . 9-11-01which we won’t ever forget , can’t believe it will be 20 years in a few days since that horrible day . Great footage of the subways in this video .
I was there too. Anyone in NYC will remember that day and the time after and we are all connected by it. Peace.
The real NYC before the gentrification
carl cigarettes everywhere days
+Richard Head Detroit's beautiful though, historic architecture is not forcing people to sell drugs and kill each other. I don't know why developers think that.
There is not a truth existing which I fear, or would wish unknown to the whole world.
Rocky, why do you deny reality?
na na I don't deny reality . there's more to reality than what we are made to think .. ever heard of the saying ..you were born an original don't die copy
This is before we started living in George Orwell's 1984
Or so you think..
@@fungi42o0 exactly. It's always been 1984
@@swiftkarma4436 no not really you could actually roam around the 80s without a 1000s cameras and kooks with narc phones tracking devices and social engineering media
Its gotten even worse 3 years later
So...you thought it was bad three years ago?
I remember going on a field trip to New York and riding on a graffiti covered train. It was awesome! Filth and grime was never that much fun!
I tend to agree!! Specially if you've nowhere to.really go, and it's not rush hrs!!
Old skool NYC. makes me feel good
@WHITTY IS10NYCTOMG skool.
Why these vintage videos are so fascinating ?
Everything look more authentic than today
This is WILD! My first time in NYC was 1998 ... and I moved here this January. Cannot believe how graffiti-ed the trains and on the inside too. I'm in this station on an almost daily basis, so its amazing to see it in "another life". The signage is all different, yet I still recognize it. Thank you for this!
I's nice to not see anyone on their cell phones..
+ImmersionPsychosis it was made in the 1986s
+VICTOR “GERALD” THOMAS they wernt invented yet
+robert szvetics cell phones were invented in the 1970s
+theblindguy But they was huge as hell
cell phones didnt become widely used until the mid to late 90s. even then they werent smart phones so people werent staring at them. this only started in the late 2000s
You grew up riding the subway
Running with people
Up on Harlem, Down on Broadway!
You're a Native New Yorker! as am I
Native New Yorker !!!!
Odyssey lives!!!
SweetAmber I live in NY
Why not Up on Queens ?
I was just 16 years old when i immigrated to the U.S in 88 , the city has definitely come a long way .
This video just brings back really nice memories, i am happy and thankful to have been able to witness the transformation of New York City .👍🏻
Go back to ur fuking country
I wish I could have been alive to experience this NYC. I go often now, and I very much love it, but I can't help but feel like this was a better New York.
No, no it was not.
This was not a better New York by any means.
It WAS definitely a better New York. Grittier, yes. Did we get mugged a lot? Yes. But there was art and music and a lot more happening. It was not the exclusive rich condo chain hell that it is now.
Although crime back then was crazy, this was definitely a better New York..Dont pay no mind to the snwflakes that think otherwise
@alexmunch6118 Crime was not that crazy in the 80's! That was the 90's! The 80's was a much better decade than now despite how it looked back then!
Thank you very much for that worthy documentation. Good in picture and sound.
I love remembering the days before mobile phones and social media. Sure, things werent perfect. But I liked it better.
back then crack were cocaine, now it's baby powder.
when everyone was staring at their newspaper instead of their phone and important news took weeks to reach you... yeah good times
@@KaptainKerl ""Important news took weeks to reach you" LOL Are you on crack? These were the 80's not the middle ages. And instead of people constantly staring at their phones they were actually socializing in real life.
Init
@@KaptainKerl People do that in London. They read so much. I like it.
Thank you for your fantastic film. I enjoyed it very much. A beautiful slice of NY subway history captured and shared with the world - I salute you.
I was born in Long Island City on Saturday November 19,1977 at 11:18AM and grew up in Greenpoint and have vivid memories of the subway! 😂
Wow. What a nostalgic trip. Thanks so much for making this vid. As a 47 year old guy, I can truly appreciate this.
You stole my words.
Like a time machine, amazing footage RP, greetings to all the Urban train fanatics!
Man was their every a more urban decade in the history of America than 80's NYC
We kept it pretty gully over in SF, like the west coast mini NYC especially around the tenderloin, downtown, soma, and our transit system was also straight destroyed with graffiti in the 80s and into the 90s, the golden days of seeing a bus roll down the street with like 15 of your friends names tagged on the side so you gotta run up and add yours. Not as hardcore as the NY MTA trains, but still fun. They locked most of the metro trains inside the indoor barn so only the buses were exposed outdoors. You can go walk through the tenderloin still in 2020 and i bet it will take you back to that NYC vibes lol, crack smoking in public, drug deals everywhere, pissin on the street etc..
Chicago right now is pretty close to it.
As I'm watching this , I am reminded of the Movie The WARRIORS. I was 26 back then. 😨😆😷
As an MTA worker, i was stationed at the Times Square stationin 1986.than along came Disney and killed the whike neighborhood.tbe Times Square lighting shop was ripped away to make room for a stairway.Great capture ,you really brought me back.
.
you can feel the disconnect without cellphones and internet. Made life more mysterious and interesting to live. Being so connected these days creates to many shortcuts and therefore many times we overlook the beauty of what lies in the inbetween
That's crazy when you look back at it i grew up in that era man how times has changed FACTS
I love thinking about the 80s and 90s back when social media didn't exist...
the thing is i wasn't alive then
True story ❤🎉
I lived in Brooklyn in 1986. Clinton-Washington Avenue stop, which then was then the CC local. My gosh remembrance of the grit, grime, graffiti, tokens for .75 cents, and jumping those turnstiles...
Did you see the R110A and R110B back then too?
TheJazzyjeff333 Kum Kau kitchen on Myrtle Ave!
.75 cents is equal to $1.83 in 2021
I was there, Freshman year of high school, 1986. I travelled those same trains, same station at that time, every day, changing from the N to the 1 train and back again. I remember that newsstand, those halls before the Times Square station was later rebuilt. All that graffiti right before it was cleaned up, those turnstyles before the hard-to-jump ones were installed. Tokens! You could buy fake "slugs" for 50 cents each (half price). No more K train! The subways were a lot more empty then than they became later (pre-pandemic). I looked but didn't spot myself in the film... What a time capsule!
Even tho i was just a young kid, this ignited unreal memories. The smell is the only thing missing from this video
I could watch this all day.
The best time to ride the subways was the late 60s: they still had the old IND R 1-9s, and many of the newer stainless cars mixed in. The only graffiti was Taki 183 on the IRT, this is where it all started. Meanwhile, on the A train, the R-10 Thunderbirds in blue and white livery represented the 1940s.
Before the metro card .. tokens ! I miss those days
And students had the MTA pass
Today, they're gonna make us use credit card tapping
I miss the token too, something about just dropping it in the hole
You mean slugs... Wink wink**
So do I !! Still have some 1982 tokens, fr when they were .75 apiece!!
I remember it well. I was hanging in Times Sq, during this period and early seventies. It brings back memories.
I grew up hooked on style wars, breakdancing, deejaying and all the old greats from juice crew to the golden age of rap. Went to an audio engineering school in NYC at the time nas dropped "hip hop is dead" and so much of the culture had vanished at that point(2006). Interning all year at the fat beats record store/label was a dream though and I would not take back that experience for anything.
This is the real NY
Chill Ken, nobody deflowered your butthole. Yes, nobody likes the new gentrified scenes, most locations have lost their charm and identity...
Yup!!
Samuel L Jackson agreed
Ken R yep NY is fake as fuck now but you did not live or grow up here.
The peak of capitalism...
This is extremely good video quality for something that was 34 years old. You could convince me this was 10 years old
Shot on film baby!
i'm kind obssesed with this year 'cause i was born in 1986 and i was looking for something interesting on you tube and i found your video, it is amazing i loved it so much!
It’s amazing how much NYC has cleaned up the subway. It looked a lot darker and dingier then-kinda a scary vibe!!
You know whats crazy is that the subway stations still look the same all these years later. Trains are cleaner now. Very interesting and captivating film to watch.
One of the trains this video is an R32. I used to ride these on the C train to work everyday. The heaters under the seat worked great in winter. They just retired these in 2020. Can you believe that? Over 50 years of service. Hopefully, they’ll add one to the transit museum so I can go and visit an old friend 🙂
Why is it being recommend to me after 11 years during quarantine
I remember when I used to breakdance on those trains it’s amazing how it took two decades after the 70s to clean out the trains😅
Really takes me back to the 80s & 90s. Rode the subway from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back every day. 25 years later I still dream about running after my train. LOL
Dam the good old days for me . Riding these trains to go to school in the Bronx .
I was 16 at this time wouldn't change it for this time.....
The trains, 42nd st. Thompskim Sq.Park, Washington Park, that was my world. Almost forgot the east river at 14th st.
Get well soon nyc
I LOVE "OLD NEW YORK"
I love the New York City 80 s look I was real young something about 80 s New York look like life was fun back then
When NYC was still interesting, thanks for the memories.
Reminds me of "The Equalizer" tv show, which often took place in New York subway halls.
Good show, 1980's..View of an IRT R21/R22 train in the beginning tag..Edward Woodward..Loved his style!
@@samburkes7552 Stewart Copeland created the show's theme tune :-)
There's nothing like NYC and Subway is the best way to get around....As a New Yorker I'm proud to be born and raised in the best place on earth...
The New York Mets won the World Series on 10/27/1986 at Shea stadium
What an amazing year that was. The Giants winning the super bowl made that year so much sweeter.
I don't know which is more nostalgia-inducing: the black-on-white station signage, the subway car graffiti...or the "token clerks" actually selling tokens!
Wwwwwooooowwww 4:38 that was a BEAUTIFUL car with window down Kaze / West pieces and a top 2 bottom BBoy character all the way at the rightmost end covering the conductors booth which happened to be running on the 3 line that day but should have been a 1 Broadway local initially. It’s pretty faded already here but that’s a famous car. Incredible specimen of NY history captured right here.
Man, our trains had mad graffiti on them back then. New York has changed a lot over the years. This seems so nostalgic.
Lmao I lived in NYC all my life and I have never even heard of a K train. I wonder if people are taping us secretly so the kids of the future can see this lmaoooo I would love to look back when im like 50 something years old and remember what the city use to be like back in my day. This video shows my moms day and my dads day lmaoo
Wiki says it was discontinued in the mid 70's. Maybe the sign never was taken down
The first K Train was discontinued in the 1970's, it ran a route similar to how the
M Train runs today (Broadway Brooklyn/6 Av Local), but this is the 1980's version of the K Train that ran as an 8 Av Local (formerly the AA Train) that ran from 168 Street to the World Trade Center in Manhattan.
In the mid-nineties I noticed several instances of the K train logo being present on some signs at different stations. This was usually seen right above the entrance to a subway station as you were going down the steps. I also noticed one or two stations that still had the AirTrain (airplane) logo.
Even to this day, if you look really closely at some of the signs right above the steps that lead down into the subway you can see the black imprint from the previous K train logo.
You can see it running sometimes on the q and b line by Coney Island SOMETIMES
Back then, people in NYC also didn't say "Lmaaaaaaaaaao" after every sentence.
I was born the year this was made... It would be cool if this person was filming in 1976 too! I'm absolutely fascinated by the old new york and I am jealous of all of you who got to live through it!
Wow no smart phones everyones looking forward. . Smoking in underground stations. Same train cars we have. I was 9. Nice to see. Good quality video by the way, givin the era
wow this video went by so fast. over before I knew it. what an awesome experience. thank you!
I love this video. Absolutely good montage here.
I was a conductor for 30 years in nyc subways. The 80s had a lot of crime in the subway. It was not a fun place to work, today's subway is like Disneyland compared to then. All those subway cars that your seeing in this video with the exception of the r- 32 , have gone to the scrap yard
...my stepfather was a conductor with the TA in the early '70's on the 7 train
Thomas Moriarty also except the r46
crack cocaine epidemic, right ?!….from about 86 to 1992ish...destroyed thousands of lives, families, businesses ….the amount of crime was crazy in any inner city in the usa !!
What line had the best graffiti??
@Nilsa Holtz frontpage headline of the Post "Okay, you got me." I am the Son of Sam...
what year was that?
I LOVE 80s
This is marvelous. I am obsessed by NYC subway and subways in general
Born in Brooklyn 1981… The train graffiti was beautiful to me… and so was all those XXX bright lights everywhere too 😂😂😂