Fans choosing the smart way to travel to the Yankees wildcard playoff game tonight against the Minnesota Twins will get the chance to travel back in time by riding a vintage IRT train that first hit the rails a few years before the original stadium first opened its doors. 

The “Nostalgia Special’s” rattan seats, ceiling fans and drop sash windows reflect back to an earlier age of subway travel. The train, originally operated by the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) system, began service in 1917, serving customers for more than five decades before they were retired in the 1960s.  Rolled out for the occasional special service assignment, the train serves as a splendid illustration of just how far rapid transit car design and technology has advanced over the past 100 years.

Game time tonight is 8:08pm.   The four-car “Nostalgia Special” is scheduled to leave 42nd Street-Grand Central at 7pm running non-stop to 161st Street-Yankee Stadium, arriving about 30 minutes after leaving Grand Central.

Additional service will be provided for the capacity crowds of more than 52,000 fans expected to attend the game.  As a reminder, fans can always take the BD or 4 train to 161 St-Yankee Stadium (B during rush hours only). After all games, trains are queued along the center track of the Jerome and Concourse Lines and then called into 161 St-Yankee Stadium and filled one by one until the last Manhattan-bound customers are on their way.

Yankee Stadium is also served by the SBS Bx 6, and the Bx6 and Bx13 local buses. The Bx1, Bx2, and BxM4 stop at 161st Street and the Grand Concourse, a short three-block walk to the stadium.

Metro-North Railroad will offer plenty of direct, fast and convenient "Train to the Game" service on the Hudson, Harlem and New Haven Lines as well as frequent shuttle service from Grand Central Terminal/Harlem-125th Street Stations.  Post-game direct trains are timed to depart 20- to 45-minutes after the last out.

Customers who can’t make it aboard this vintage train, but still crave a bit of nostalgia can visit the New York Transit Museum, one of the city's leading cultural institutions and the largest museum in the United States devoted to urban public transportation history.  For more information on the museum, click here.