Xmas Gift for the Transit Nut

"Subway car No. 8026 stopped, and the public-address system announced, a little too clearly: 'Sheepshead Bay. This is a northbound Brighton local. Next stop, Kings Highway.'

'This was my line,' said Thomas C. Nuzzo, who was driving the train. 'I can name all the stops.'

But No. 8026 was nowhere near where he grew up in Brooklyn. It had been circling a track inside Grand Central Terminal — a model railroad track, that is. No. 8026 and the three drab-green cars it was pulling are the first New York City subway cars ever built by Lionel, which has made model electric railroad trains for more than 100 years.

Of course, in the 21st century, electric trains have wireless controls. Mr. Nuzzo, Lionel’s events manager, pushed a button on the device in his hand. The doors snapped shut, and the train sped off."