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Friends will be in NYC this week and they have heard that there are tours of Grand Central. Does anyone have current information on this? I did find some information on the web but it sounded a bit dated.
Thanks in advance.
Frank in dark, warm, windy SBA
Posts: 2160 | From: Santa Barbara, CA, USA | Registered: Oct 2003
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If you are going to tour Grand Central, don't miss the Campbell Apartment. It is on the station's south side just off Vanderbilt Ave.It is every railfan's ultimate dream, actually living in grand splendour in Grand Central. A certain Mr. Campbell was a friend of the Vanderbilts, and he used to park his private car under the station and proceed to his luxurious apartment. I guess he saved a lot on hotel bills. It is now open to the public as a cocktail lounge, perhaps the grandest in the city.
Posts: 524 | From: Toronto Ont. Canada | Registered: Mar 2001
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Frank, I think there may be more than one group who does a Grand Central Station tour. But the one I know about, that is mentioned in the NY Times etc all the time, is given by the Municipal Art Society; the focus of the tour, which lasts about an hour, is on architecture. The link is http://www.mas.org/Events/tours.cfm According to that link, they offer their tours every Wednesday at 12:30, and the suggested donation is $10. For more information, your friends can phone 212-935-3960. They should definitely phone to make sure it is still on and let them know they are coming; some of these tours are sometimes cancelled at the last minute if not enough people are coming.
Grand Central Station has its own web site, www.grandcentralterminal.com. If you go there (it comes in very slowly on my server!) and then, on the top where the picture/links are, click Tours, the Guided Tour they offer costs way too much IMO (unless it's a party of more than 10), but they have info on a do-your-own Walking Tour you can download.
Tell your friends to be sure to watch the original Superman film either before or after they go; Lex Luthor's apartment makes great use of Grand Central Station!
Also, tell your friends to enter Grand Central on Vanderbilt Avenue and walk down the marble stairs for the best effect. Vanderbilt is a somewhat lesser-known NY street that runs from East 42nd north to about East 47th only. It is parallel to and one block east of Madison Ave, parallel to and one block west of Lexington Avenue.
Also in the station, there was a display someplace with some old train posters and whatnot last time when I was there--not sure it's still open. It included a gift shop where they can buy something for you, if it's still there!!!
Now, there are "secret" tunnels and walks all around here. Tell your friends when they leave Grand Central to walk over to East 42nd Street and go by the underpass, and walk south on Park Avenue South. This is the quiet part of Park Avenue; they can walk as far as East 36th (If they like, they can cut over one block west to Madison and 36th and visit the J P Morgan Library (famous from the film and book Ragtime), well worth seeing--but, I diverge). Anyway, whether or not they detour to the Morgan Library, they have to go down Park Avenue South to about East 32nd Street. Then they have to take a taxi and tell the driver he has to go under/over Grand Central. (They might say they are going to Waldorf Astoria, that will be a short trip; but the driver has to go under/over Grand Central Station. I hope there is no traffic prohibition prevented them from doing that; they have to check with the driver in advance). So anyway, you go down the tunnel on Park Avenue South at around East 33rd, then come up back onto that overpass back near 42nd, then go through part of the terminal itself . . . It used to be even neater, longer (when I was a kid and visited NYC to see the Christmas tree, my dad always drove through) before they built that crappy Pan Am building over Grand Central (I believe it's now Met Life, as Pan Am is no more. . . . ) They will come out on East 47th, and the Waldorf is just a few blocks up, Park Avenue entrance right next to the lovely St Bartholomew's Church. They might go in the Waldorf, which has a very nice lobby. They can go out the other side, which is Lexington Avenue. (Christmastime the lobby used to have a big gingerbread house, don't know if it still does but it will be too early anyway). Okay, another thing to do right around Grand Central is walk from Madison Avenue and East 41st Street west one long block toward the NY Public Library (at 41st and Fifth Avenue). All the way up East 41st, both sides of the street, you are on Library Walk, and the sidewalk has famous quotes by different authors, mostly but not all about books. My favorite is the one by Mark Twain. I think both sides have the same quotes, but I'm not sure.
When your friends get to the NY Public Library, they should go in. They may remember this from Ghostbusters. Anyway, there is a very good (and I'm pretty sure, free) tour of the building. You want to see the Main Reading Room and the Periodical Room, especially; the latter was refurbished with a big donation from Reader's Digest. There are also smaller rooms on the tour that you otherwise would rarely get to see, all pretty nice, the map room etc etc. Also, separate from the tour and even if your friends cannot take the tour due to bad timing, they might see in addition to the Main Reading Room and Periodical Room, the (free) exhibit the library has on; it is often quite interesting. When I was last there, they had a very interesting one called Before Victoria, on British women's achievements before about 1840, lots of documents, manuscripts, etc.
Posts: 2642 | From: upstate New York | Registered: Mar 2004
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I'm overwhelmed by the amount of information! Thanks to all of you. It makes me want to head to NYC and join my friends! Instead I will be driving up north to Redding for a couple of days.
Frank in Sunny SBA
Posts: 2160 | From: Santa Barbara, CA, USA | Registered: Oct 2003
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There is annex for the MTA museum on the west side corridors there you will find an old non electronic train board written in chalk and a secure waiting room. like the waiting rooms I believe you must have a train ticket to sit. I'm sure you can pop in if your touring. behind the waiting room is the Biltmore Room this area used to be underneath the Hotel of the same name. I remember when I was young my dad used to take open a door comming from the north and would end up in the terminal, not sure but it may have been in the Roosevelt Hotel? any clues? It was a very non-descript doorway nothing to announce it was a short cut to the trains. Also, you can find a steel door at the Waldorf, this leads to the secret platform below the Waldorf. If you want to stick with the Superman Movie themes the Daily News Building is to the East on 42nd and 2nd. Try the book "Grand Cenral, Gateway to a Million Lives" it is a great guide to whats new whats old and what has been restrored. Though it is not nearly as impressive and well thats another story. There is a free tour of Pennsylvania Station it meets on the 4th Monday of every month at 12:30 pm. It is a very good tour about what happened to the great station and what might have been Grand Centrals fate. The tour points out what and where some of the last remnents that remain of its past glory. http://www.lbdiehl.com/ enjoy
Posts: 516 | From: New Haven, CT USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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Hey everyone interested in taking a tour of GCT for $12 Check out the web site I'm sure they will have more tours of the Terminal begining next Spring. Looks interesting. It meets outside and the tour company really knows the city and it history.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17 AT 1 PM GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL – CROSSROADS OF A MILLION PRIVATE LIVE Monument to movement, and a thrilling symbol of New York's openness to people and ideas. MEET: Whitney Midtown, 42nd St. and Park Avenue, southwest corner. $12
Posts: 516 | From: New Haven, CT USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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I enjoy how Gold Tours uses the opening line of script from the radio soap opera Grand Central Station.
However, I think most here would have in mind a tour of the railroad facilities, and somehow I guess this Gold Tour is more focused on the architecture of the public spaces.
Probably great for art students; not nevessarily so for railfans.
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I just stopped at Grand Central when I visited NYC this past weekend (had a lovely trip down on Amtrak--foliage very pretty!). I was at the Campbell Apartment (note that it doesn't open until 3PM, and serves just drinks--very expensive but a fun place to see--you can go up an elevator to get there, it's on the "E" level. The Food Court in the basement is really nice too, though overheated if you are eating there. But they have BBQ, Jamaican, Indian, Mexican, and other concessions that all looked pretty good. And don't miss the Whispering corners outside the Oyster Bar (ask the maitre d' in the Oyster Bar where to stand, if you don't know). The Grand Central Market is well worth walking through too; expensive but really lovely variety; I dare you not to buy some of the delicious food there.
Just one other bit of updated info (re my previous post above): They seem to be working on some renovations at the Morgan Library; I'm not sure if it is all open.
Also, if you take the taxi under the station etc. (see my previous post above), it's actually more scenic entering from the NORTH (uptown) side, through the older building with the clock, now a (Grr) Helmsley Building, before you go through the rest. You can walk up Park Avenue to the Waldorf and take the taxi back down from there.
Posts: 2642 | From: upstate New York | Registered: Mar 2004
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I believe the these great classic buildings are a monuments to America's Railroading Greatness and Arogance (?). The architect's and railroad presidents built them to incorporate the comfort of rail travel. These buildings are so magnificent that when they became to big for the trains they became museums convention centers and court, municple buildings. These rail barons put the same passion in there stations as they did, at one time, there rail service. Most cities and small towns have found that there station was to beautiful to tear down long after the tracks had been removed.
Also, I may be wrong, but, following 9/11 I'm not sure if tours are able to visit the machine shops and underground tracks. Last January I toured Penn Station and all of their back areas where off limits.
PS Thank you for the audiio site.
Posts: 516 | From: New Haven, CT USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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I also meant to include a recommendation for an interesting book about Grand Central Station in its heyday, with lots about its history, its significance to NYC, the city's history, the trains themselves, some people who came through, etc etc. It is Grand Central by David Marshall, written & published in the late 1940s.
Posts: 2642 | From: upstate New York | Registered: Mar 2004
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I've read it, Ms. Sojourner, complete with an entire chapter addressing "Departure of the Century'. This is where I first learned its scheduled departure time was 601P vice the public's time of 6PM.
Posts: 9975 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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I've taken two different tours of Grand Central Terminal in recent years.
The first tour, conducted by the Municipal Arts Society, was led by a retired architect who clearly knew the building inside and out. However, the presentation was definitely slanted toward architecture fans. He could have just as easily been giving a tour of the main Public Library or City Hall. The fact that it was a railroad facility seemed somewhat incidental.
The second tour, run by the Grand Central Partnership, devoted only about twenty minutes or so to the Terminal itself. The rest of the tour focused on the surrounding neighborhood. Great if you're in love with the Met Life (formerly Pan Am) Building. Not so great if you're not.
So if you have a strong interest in passenger trains, bygone or otherwise? Both tours are likely to disappoint.
Neither guide seemed to know much (or care) about the building's railroad history prior to Metro North's current commuter service. Only one of the two men even mentioned the New York Central Railroad. The guide from the Grand Central Partnership not only admitted that he'd never ridden on a train, but seemed surprised to learn that -- until the early 1990s -- it had been possible to board one headed for Chicago.
As for that much-desired, behind-the-scenes peek into railroad operations. . . I don't think tour guides were doing that even prior to September 11th. For safety, security, and liability reasons, the underground yard and work areas, generator rooms, and dispatcher areas have always been off limits to the general public.
My advice to anyone contemplating a visit? Forget the tours. Read one of the great books that have been written about the Terminal. Or just learn a little about its history online. And then spend an hour or two wandering around the huge place by yourself.
The best times? Mid-afternoon on weekday, when it's crowded but not rush hour insane. Or after 10PM on a rainy weeknight, when the crowds have gone home and it's very atmospheric.
Posts: 793 | Registered: Mar 2002
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dilly, yes the two tours regularly scheduled tours do tend to veer on the art subjects. The tour I mentioned www.nyctours.com seems to be run by historians. There is a e-mail address on the home page so perhaps one could get info on what types of subjects the tour covers. I guess with the passing of time there are no old station masters engineers or pulhman porters who can tell the storys of Americas "golden age" of railroading which I suppose ended mmm around 1953?
Posts: 516 | From: New Haven, CT USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Tanner929: The tour I mentioned www.nyctours.com seems to be run by historians.
I'm familiar with Joyce Gold's tours of various New York attractions. She's good. But I doubt her tour of Grand Central is any more "rail intensive" than the tours run by the other organizations.
Like all independent tour guides, she has to appeal to the widest possible audience -- and it's safe to say that most of her customers (locals and tourists alike) have zero interest in the fine points of the Terminal's railroad history or operations.
Depending on how loosely you define it, the "golden age" of railroading probably ended long before 1953. But the New York Central ran the 20th Century Limited between New York and Chicago until 1967. And Amtrak ran the Lake Shore Limited and the Empire Service trains out of Grand Central until 1991. So while the Terminal's role in long distance rail travel is now history, it certainly isn't ancient history.
Posts: 793 | Registered: Mar 2002
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