Arlo Guthrie…not certain if he wrote it, but he certainly sings it, as I was listening to the CD earlier…
Matt, I understand your love and appreciation of our subway system…some are indeed, almost cathedral-like, and evoke such strong emotions…
Lionel-Groulx is special…in 1986, a 16 yr old dewt climbed up to the dirty windows (above the escaltors)and wrote "I love you’ in the dirt for me…that ‘I love you’ was there for well over a year if not longer…(you think they would wash the windows).
Personally, the subway system I’m obsessed with is New York City. If you want to see an example of a very extensive site along the lines of what you’re attempting, http://www.nycsubway.org is an example of one that’s certainly more than an individual effort. They also have a message board there (SubTalk) where you can probably find kindred spirits, even if it is mostly about New York.
Hey, matt_mcl and waterj2, you might want to check out The Underground Guide to New York City Subways by David Frattini, which I recently read. Detailed, if idiosyncratic, reviews of not only the architecture and decor of every station in the system, but also a guide to nearby attractions and restaurants. As a former New Yorker, I wish I had the time on my brief trips back to check out some of the more far-flung stations he mentions.
How did this fall to the second page so soon? We are discussion subways here! This is important and vital. Dear God, how can so many people just not care?
AN ITINERARY FOR A TOUR OF THE MONTREAL METRO (by Matt McLauchlin)
We’ll start our tour today here at Metro Place-St-Henri, which is good because it’s where I happen to live. We’ll enter through the stairs, one of only a very small number of stations to have open stairs rather than a kiosk. Notice the sculpture protruding through the floor of the mezzanine, which is also the ceiling of the platform volume, as well as the statue of Jacques Cartier which used to be located in the nearby park. On the back wall of the control area is a mural with the words “Bonheur D’Occasion”, in reference to the French title of Gabrielle Roy’s novel The Tin Flute, set in this neighbourhood. We’ll go down this tall escalator to the Henri-Bourassa platform, where the death scene in Denys Arcand’s Jesus of Montreal was filmed. Notice the high archways linking the great volume to the portion of the platform that was built in tunnel; notice also the thin wall that divides the escalators from the volume, brick on the escalator side and grey with coloured brick panels on the platform side. Notice how the archways regress slowly in the northern side and quickly on the southern side. And take a look too at the coloured brick panels, which start yellow in the middle and regress through red, purple, blue, and green at the end.
Now we’ll get on the train. Next stop: Square-Victoria.
Matt, I think we are long-lost kinfolk. There is some sort of “train geek” gene floating around out there!
I do enjoy and appreciate trains as well. I would love to make more Amtrack trips, but I never seem to have the time anymore. But about 10 years ago I did a cross-country (coast to coast) trip on the Amtrack - it was a glorious adventure. I still have all the ticket stubs.
Anyway, matt, I hope you have been heartened by this thread, and will “come out” more about your love for the metro. It is a nifty thing, and there are more people out there than you imagine!
I wish my dad had embraced his train-geekiness more. For instance, he was too “ashamed” (I think) to ever get a toy train set, (one of those really fancy sets that serious collectors use.) I know he loved them, and he had always wanted one, ever since childhood. I finally clued into this and got him a whole set for Christmas. It was very, VERY cool. The train set gave him “permission” to get some really nifty little train things, that he would have otherwise been too embarrassed to buy. (But since his daughter had bought him the train set, what could he do?)
My experience with the NYC subway system is largely theoretical. I’ve only actually been to the city a handful of times. I’m stuck up in upsate NY, where our only public transportation is busses :(. If we ever end up in the city, I’m sure I could easily make up a workable itinerary of sights for a day’s trip though. And if I’m ever heading up to the North, I’ll certainly let you know (I mean how many people get personal tours of the Metro from genuine parliamentary candidates?)
Incidentally, as far as the relation to politics goes, my love of mass transit has never really fit in too well with being a libertarian. I figure, though, that as long as every other type of transportation is seriously underwritten by the government, mass transit is at least no worse.
I’d be very interested in how the heck you would solve the technical problems of designing a model of a subway. Would the stations be cut away? The project sounds like a lifetime labor of love. But then, maybe that’s because I can’t imagine doing justice to it without such things as detailing the exact artwork and everything.
i loved the metro in montreal. in south texas the water table is too high so you rarely see even a basement, so underground tunnels and things always fascinate me.
also, you can read on the metro, you can’t in a car.
i bought monthly passes and loved to metro around the city. my home stops were place st. henri (hey!), with huge escalators going down, down, down… and then i moved to place des arts. mont-royal has a nice poem near the exit.
I love that poem, Hazel. For dopers who don’t know, it’s inscribed in big letters in the wall of a building adjacent to the metro (which itself is located in Gerald-Godin park).
Here it is:
TANGO DE MONTREAL
Gerald Godin
Sept heures du matin métro de Montréal
c’est plein d’immigrants
ça se lève tôt le matin
ce monde-là
le vieux coeur de la ville
battrait-il donc encore
grâce à eux
ce vieux coeur usé de la ville
avec ses spasmes
ses embolies
ses souffles au coeur
et tous ses défauts
et tous les raisons du monde qu’il aurait
de s’arrêter
de renoncer
matt, no you’re right, public transit is wonderful and subways/metros etc are really, really special. I, too, am a big fan of NYC’s subway sytem.
Make sure you toss us a link when your site is up. And if you ever get around to building a model, I want to see it. (I love models of real things, and I can watch good train sets for a long time.)
here’s a bad english translation, that poem was my biggest french lesson the whole time i was there, i asked my girlfriend what it was about (i saw it every time i went to her apartment), and she said “it is about immigrants, they are the… blood transfusion for the dying city” an interesting choice of words, i thought.
seven in the morning, montreal metro
it’s packed with immigrants
that rise early in the morning
it’s that world
the old heart of the city
thus still beats
thanks to them
this old worn city heart
with its spasms
its embolisms
its heart murmurs
and all its defects
and all the reasons in the world
to stop
to give up
thanks for posting it up matt, i’ve never been able to find it online.
Good translation! The last two lines of the first stanza would be better translated, “they get up early in the morning, those people.” “Du monde” is Québécois slang for “people” (back-formed from “tout le monde”).
[sub]sorry, couldn’t resist. Matt, I already told you in chat that I don’t find your fascination particularly strange. Sounds like a great site is in the works.[/sub]
Check out this site. It has links to some webpages detailing explorations of old, shut down, and otherwise forgotten subways and metros. Very, VERY neat.
Matt, I could have sworn reading a website talking about exploring a ‘lost’ Montreal station, but I can’t find it now. Sorry.
Homer, if you find such a thing, please send it me immediately. I’ve never come across any reference at all to an installation that was built, brought into function, and then shut down in Montreal. (The orange line tunnel after Côte-Vertu was dug as far as boul. Salabery, but nothing was ever installed in it.) I’d be extremely interested in reading about any such installation.
