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| Subway Station Plaza de Mayo, all restored, cleaned up, freshly painted and decorated with wall murals, the floors polished to a shine, and wooden waiting benches varnished to perfection. 100 years ago it may have looked slightly different, but it was then that Buenos Aires, 1913, inaugurated its first subway line, the famous Line A. Last January I had the historic pleasure of riding on A line on the very last day it was in service. |
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| Wall murals in Plaza de Mayo subway station |
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| To celebrate, the Subway Company has opened the station to public viewing (without having to pay for a fare to ride the present day version which departs from the other side of the platform) and displayed two of the restored antique cars. Subway employees explained history, sold DVDs and Calendars, and gave away old post cards featuring subway traffic and passengers. |
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| One of the large murals in the station |
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| All gussied up, the wooden benches are newly varnished, light fixtures all cleaned and working, windows free of graffiti, floors spotless, leather straps on windows oiled, walls without a scratch, and everything spic and span as on the day a Belgian Subway manufacturer delivered these cars in 1913 |
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| Opposite the more modern wall murals, huge advertising placards from the good old days grace the tunnel walls. |
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| As good as new, they still work perfectly, albeit without the benefit of airconditioning and automatic doors |
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| Wooden partitions to the conductor's cabin highly polished and varnished |
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| The business end of the old train...no GPS or computer controls here, just a bunch of levers and wheels...and it all worked just fine |
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| Another huge advertising placard ...the tram depicted here still works on part of the Rivadivia Street, and on Saturdays, Sundays and Holidays one can ride the rails for free on this old cars |
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| Rider on the lost Ark |
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| Old on the right, and semi new on the left. The latest version of Subway cars Made in China, supplement the checkerboard ones shown at left. |
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| The Made in China version rolls into the station, airconditioned, still graffiti free, silent and equipped with electronic station markers...quite a change from 1913 |
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| Plaza de Mayo... |
