TRANSIT MUSEUM SUBWAY TRIVIA 2020

by Kevin Walsh

PICTURED here is the annual Transit Museum subway trivia quiz held in downtown Brooklyn each January, which attracted hundreds of participants every year for several years, with the last one held in 2020. I assembled teams to participate every year (teams could be from two to six members) and took the crown once, along with several second and third place finishes. In all but one year did my team fail to make the top ten out of 35 teams. Questions often concentrated on pop culture such as music and movies, so I tried to have younger people on the team aware of modern pop items. The meat and potatoes of the quiz, though, concentrated on knowing transfer points and subway line nomenclature; “foamer” items such as subway car models and makes were largely avoided. Prize swag included items from the Transit Museum store.

I was also an initial participant in the annual Panorama Challenge, a NYC geographical quiz held each March at the NYC scale model Panorama at the Queens Museum in Flushing Meadows. After my team won the initial year I was recruited to help out with vetting questions and answers and scoring. Similar to transit trivia, participants split up into teams.

With the Covid Virus running wild each winter, who knows when large indoor quizzes of this sort attracting hundreds will ever take place again? It was an annual tradition that so far, ground to a halt in 2020.

Were you a participant in either? Comments, as always, are open.

12/12/22

9 comments

Andy December 13, 2022 - 12:14 am

I have been to both events in past years. I stopped attending the Panorama after about 2018 because it attracted too many people who treated it as a social event only and the so-called teams became too unwieldy, at least in my not always humble opinion. I preferred the Transit Museum trivia events because the attendees were fewer and the questions more focused (mass transit only). Regardless, who knows when or if either will return. Kevin, if live events return, I will be glad to team with you at the Transit Museum.

Reply
Sunnysider December 13, 2022 - 12:22 am

To get there, just take the Jeopar-D Train.

Reply
John V. December 13, 2022 - 1:10 am

I wish I could’ve been there. I would’ve received a lot more than an honorable mention !

Reply
tiger December 14, 2022 - 12:18 pm

could you publish the questions from some of the old subway trivia quiz (with answers for some of us non experts)?

Reply
Kevin Walsh December 14, 2022 - 12:51 pm

I am afraid I have er, ah, forgotten as the last one was way back in Jan. 2020.

Reply
Andy December 14, 2022 - 2:33 pm

When I last participated, probably 2019, some questions went like this: “We are now at (STATION NAME). Continue (NB or SB) from there for five stops on the (NUMBER OR LETTER OF TRAIN).”
For example, we are at Broadway Jct. on the C train. The next five stops are….(Liberty, Van Siclen, Shepherd, Euclid, Grant).
Not easy stuff like the north-south routes in Manhattan that are mostly a number sequence above Houston St.

Reply
Nora December 14, 2022 - 10:53 pm

Oh hey, that’s me. I think my team came in 4th? I miss transit trivia!

Reply
Howard Fein December 20, 2022 - 9:27 pm

I participated in 2014, when our team, the Railfan Window Mourners won. Illness kept me out in 2015 and ’16, but I returned every year from ’17 through ’20. The pop culture questions did ultimately doom us. I am visible in the photo above toward the top right center. The specific questions about the system, such as the example Andy cited, were our bread ‘n butter. I was almost unjustly marked wrong when asked what train stopped at Halsey Street. Instinctively, I said the J but the administrators had the L in mind (there was a very heavy Yupster quotient participating in these challenges, so their instincts lean toward the L). After an excruciatingly long review period, they “gave it to me”.

A lot of the fun was the team names, which were announced during the halftime recap. I was also on a team called Damn You, Cuomo. In 2020, one team was called “103rd Street-Coronavirus”. That drew a huge laugh in late January. It turned out to not be so funny a month and a half later.

Reply
Jason B. December 21, 2022 - 7:27 pm

T’was an honor to serve with you, sir!

Reply

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.