Riding On A Vintage Subway!

History and Culture, South America, Travel Snippets, 64 Comments

Through all my rather obsessive planning for our trip to South America, and to R’s perverse glee, I somehow overlooked the fact that our dates coincided with the presidential elections in Argentina. I realised my blunder when the Buenos Aires soccer schedules were released and I couldn’t find a single match for the entire week that we were going to be there.

Too late to change our plans, we missed out on the soccer match and the Feria Mataderos and suffered an entire ‘dry’ day:-(

But the upside was a Sunday morning free of crowds to ride the vintage Line A of the Buenos Aires Subte, and check out the legendary Cafe Tortoni at leisure without having to stand in (the equally legendary) line.

Tile murals in the Estacion Congreso. The A line runs under Avenida de Mayo – from Plaza de Mayo through Congreso, its original terminus, to Carabobo.
An original wooden car of the A line!
Wooden windows with slatted shades and leather pulls
Original doors that have to be opened manually
Estacion Peru still retains most of its original decor!

I can’t possibly be accused of not being able to look on the bright side, can I?

Happy travels…..no matter where life takes you.

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Madhu is an Interior designer turned travel blogger on a long sabbatical to explore the world. When not crafting stories on The Urge To Wander, she's probably Tweeting @theurgetowander or sharing special moments on instagram.com/theurgetowander

64 thoughts on “Riding On A Vintage Subway!”

  1. Pingback: The Elitist Cemetery Of Recoleta | The Urge To Wander

  4. We were very taken with BA subway too – all that wood! But I only took a photo of Cafe Tortoni and didn’t actually realize it was a landmark until later – I took it for the beautiful doors!

  5. What a unique subway and I would consider myself very lucky that it was such a quiet day! love the wooden seats and the tile art!

  6. This is soo cool, Madhu! And Argentina is certainly one place I’d like to visit.

    So, ok, I didn’t know you’re a fellow futbol fan! Yes! 🙂

      1. Oh, well, good for you to go along with them, heh.
        But really, you guys were so lucky to have been on that vintage train car on a day like that. 🙂

        1. I wouldn’t miss the experience! And nowadays I pay more attention in order to have something to talk to the older boy about 🙂 And yes, we were very lucky to have that subte car to ourselves!

  7. That is pretty cool! I am sorry you missed out on a game though but when stuff like that happens, and it happens to all travelers, the best is to look for the bright side.

  10. Excellent photos, and I can’t help being reminded of trams in Mebourne when I was a kid, or the old trains – there’s something lovely about the wood rather than the plastic/metal constructs they have now.

    1. Thank you! You are lucky to have seen those! I feel sad that the grandkids will never know anything but plastic and metal!

    1. Thanks Margie! Didn’t really have any choice, except maybe to drown our disappointment in Malbec in the apartment, (restaurants were not serving liquor for 24 hrs!) If we had access to an English sports channel, R might have preferred that for sure 🙂

  14. I love an optimist! These vintage cars are fabulous, I do enjoy the old classic look of yesteryear.

    elisa

  15. What a cool post! I had no idea that these old subway cars existed in BA. Otherwise for sure I would have checked them out. We did take the subtle a few times though. I love this kind of stuff! Isn’t Argentina grand?! Perhaps the best food and wine in the world too!

    1. My research stands me in good stead 🙂 R finds it amusing and I feel he hopes things will go wrong sometimes, the wicked man!! You are right about Argentina…the best helado too!

  17. Hey, great shots Madhu! The interior is fantastic!! What a time capsule. Love the sash windows and those light fittings are grand! They don’t make them like that anymore. I much prefer this to the metal and plastic tubes we cram into nowadays. Hopefully they’ll become a museum piece.

    1. I do too Louise! (Although we could do with a subway of any kind in our city!) I think there are just a couple left on this line, so just a matter of time before they are reduced to being exhibits in a museum.

    1. Peru and Congreso stations are their showpieces, so they were probably buffed up a bit! But we were surprised by how clean most of South America was! (If you discount the dog poop on the BsAs pavements :-))

  20. Great shots! Your post reminded me the trip we took to Caen, France. Speaking of overlook, we found out when we were in France that it was their formula one world champion week in Caen…

  21. I like the reminder that it is possible to continue to use and repurpose things. In China anything even remotely old tends to get trashed for the “new and better” version. This was refreshing.

  22. I really like the old stuff. Manually functioning doors… you just know they work. Sometimes bad or no planning is the best. To get a subway to yourself is really rare. Love the photos Madhu. Thanks for the trip to Buenos Aires 🙂

  23. Excellent work you have here my friend thanks for sharing this 🙂

  24. Hi,
    It’s great that they still run the old trains, and you may have missed out on other things, but you have to admit it is not crowded and you got some great photos. 🙂

    1. Believe me the Soccer and the Feria would have been even better 😦 But yes, we did salvage much of the day.

  27. Oh my! That really looks antique, Madhu. What a great experience to actually ride this lovely old subway train. Great photos. 😉

    1. And to have got it almost to ourselves 🙂 BsAs subways are way too crowded normally for picture taking!

  28. I love visiting your selections for your posts, Madhu … I always know I’m in for a treat. Again, I am impressed with your photos and the story behind them. What a wonderful old subway train. Like you, I admire the old elements that are no longer seen today and appreciate the history behind old relics such as this subway. Nice share.

    1. Happy to hear that Marcy 🙂 Always a pleasure to share my passion with readers who appreciate it!

  29. Amazing shots Madhu..loved the fact that these vintage cars still operate ,they have a charm none of the newest brands can match up too..
    loved the wooden chairs and the windows,look like out of some story book wonderful photos 🙂

    1. Thanks Soma! The interiors were a bit rickety but beautiful! Have no doubt these will end up as show pieces and be replaced by modern cars soon 😦

  30. This is great, Madhu. When we were down there last summer we wanted to ride one of the old subways, but they were always so crowded. We peeked from the outside, but I don’t think we ever actually rode in one. I love that they are still in use.

    1. Thank you Naomi! One of the few benefits of that being election day 🙂 I doubt these wooden cars will be in use for very long. Some have already been replaced by shiny new ones!

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