I’ve been seeing some posts in the Submas tags that have made me think this might help some people, so here goes:
In the greater NYC metropolitan area, we have a few different rail agencies. I grew up here as a Weird Train Kid (read: undiagnosed autistic girl), so I’ve spent a fair deal of time around all of them and know them very verrrry well as a result. These are the essentials that will help you write Submas more authentically!
A few abbreviations to be aware of before we depart:
MTA: Metropolitan Transit Authority
NJT: New Jersey Transit
LIRR: Long Island Railroad
NYC: in the context of the city, New York City - but in the context of railroads, New York Central
PRR: Pennsylvania Railroad
CNJ: Central Railroad of New Jersey
DL&W: Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad
That said, let’s get into the meat of this.
Let’s Talk MTA For A Second…
The MTA in New York City actually oversees more than the subway system. It covers buses, the subway, two car tunnels, several car bridges, the LIRR, Metro-North, and a light rail on Staten Island. For an in-depth look at the subway system, you can read my Submas primer here, where I covered it. The subway will obviously be the one element you need to be the most concerned with here (and I’m happy to answer questions on it anytime!), but it’s important to know that the LIRR and Metro-North are also under the MTA’s jurisdiction. Metro-North operates commuter rail north of NYC, with any west-of-Hudson rails being operated by NJT under contract with the MTA, and the LIRR moves people around on Long Island. The LIRR is actually the busiest commuter rail line in the United States, followed by NJT and Metro-North. We like our trains here.
Culturally, you should know that the LIRR is notorious for having what are known as “drunk trains,” which are trains filled late at night with passengers returning to the suburbs after partying in the city all night. Nobody likes being stuck on the drunk train with these people except cultural anthropologists. It apparently even made it into an episode of How I Met Your Mother.
You have two major stations in Midtown. Which one is Gear Station supposed to be?
I am fairly positive that Gear Station is an amalgamation of Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal. Architecturally from the outside, the building resembles Grand Central more, given what happened to Penn Station:
Compare Grand Central, right down to the green roof:
Once you get inside Gear Station, though, you notice that a lot of it is actually underground. Both Grand Central and Penn Station have significant below-ground portions, with Penn Station being entirely underground nowadays. (Those of you who have been here for a while may have seen me draw Ingo complaining about Penn Station. He’d have his reasons to, believe me.)
The structure in the middle reminds me a lot of the information desk at Grand Central:
And the general darkness is more like Penn Station.
Penn Station once had beautiful natural light. In 1963 they stole that from us and New York has not forgiven them.
We could have had it aaaaaallllllll…
Grand Central was built by the New York Central, and Pennsylvania Station was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad. In the late 1960s both the NYC and PRR weren’t doing very well and they merged into Penn Central. We don’t talk about Penn Central.
New Jersey Transit?
Right, NJT, the bane of my existence. We’ve had a love-hate relationship for the majority of my adult life. NJT does not know this, but I do.
NJT operates commuter trains on lines once owned by railroad giants like the Erie, the DL&W, and the CNJ. Despite being the second-busiest commuter line in the entire country, New Jerseyans are frequently found complaining about them because we need to get places and they’re delayed because they saw a snowflake or something.
In all seriousness, NJT isn’t horrible and they do what they set out to do, but as a regular commuter myself I understand the complaints. It’s frustrating.
If you look at the composition of Ingo and Emmet’s team, a large portion of them can be found on the “Jersey side” of Unova (especially the Chargestone Cave area), which implies to me that they either are straight-up from New Jersey or spent frequent time in the area building their team, so they absolutely would be familiar with NJT and how to use it. I don’t usually get into headcanons in these posts because they can be very personal, but I’ve often thought it would be funny and cute if they spent time as kids looking for the remains of Penn Station in the Meadowlands, because when Penn Station was demolished for some reason a lot of the rubble was thrown into the marshlands.
As a personal note, no, I haven’t found any pieces of Penn Station yet myself. Yet.
You were a “weird train kid,” you said. Where’d you get your fix growing up?
Besides the above transit agencies, I actually went with my family to the Strasburg Rail Road a lot as a kid out in Strasburg, Pennsylvania. One of the oldest operating railroads in the United States, Strasburg runs heritage trains pulled by historic steam locomotives - it’s only a couple of hours away from where I grew up in New Jersey, so it’s not a difficult stretch to say that if the boys grew up in NJ or NYC, they’d have been able to go there as kids, too. Pennsylvania in general is teeming with heritage railways and train history (thank you, PRR and DL&W, and a lot of other long-gone railroads) so if you’re like me and you like railroad history there’s a ton of places to visit. I actually did a recent swing through the state with my dad (that Submas came with me on in spirit via plush form because I wanted to take funny photos), and in less than two weeks I’ll be on the footplate driving Strasburg #90, my first crack at driving a steam locomotive. I am either really cool or a massive nerd, you decide.
What if I have more specific questions?
Ask me! My inbox is always open and I am always SO happy to talk about train shit or go and get you photos or footage of specific stations/locations/trains/etc. I’m riding the rails underneath NYC all the time, so I’m more than happy to provide anything you might need!
sorry
he's just sleeping.
I think about these train dudes a verrrrrry normal amount
To continue my dumb ideas about our lovely but idiotic subway boss twins, Ingo and Emmet: In the modern era, they were best known in the population not for their Pokémon skills or roles as the heads of transportation in Nimbasa, but as social media stars.
It started with Elesa showing them videos on Youtube or the Pokémon equivalent which are basic train videos and what not, and Elesa asks them if they want to make a safety video that's cool, because these basic bitches in Kalos can't do it for shit. Emmet and Ingo, looking at the combination of trains, safety, and their patented brand of chaos, agree.
The video is actually super informative on train safety, but it's also incredibly chaotic. Emmet does most of the voice over because his deadpanned tones just set the mood that it's a normal video, and meanwhile the scene described is pure chaos.
"Make sure to secure your bags to your person while on the move." Emmet, over the top says. It pans to Elesa, who has a ton of bags around her from shopping, but, as the train starts, the bags all fly towards the back. Ingo, who just stepped in the car, is instantly KOed by them.
"Make sure to stay behind the yellow lines on the platform until the train comes to a stop." It shows Emmet standing in front of the line as Ingo is directing traffic. Emmet falls on the tracks due to his Archeops crashing into him, but, just as it seems like the train is going to hit him, it's revealed to be Chandelure pretending to be an engine on the tracks.
They even do videos specific to battle train safety. "Please make sure that you are on a certified Battle Boss Subway locomotive when visiting Nimbasa! Only those are certified for Pokémon battles." It then pans to Ingo and Emmet facing off against Nate and Rosa. One of them uses a Cryoganal, which proceeds to use Ice Beam, and, from the outside, we see the entire car freeze. The video then rewinds to before the battle, and Ingo points to a sign on the car that says 'not for battle,' so they move to a car that says 'battle car.' Ice Beam is used again, but this time the car has a protective area for trainers and built-in fail safes keep the car in one piece and moving along.
Emmet also occasionally curses out terrible passengers, and SOMEONE doesn't properly edit them out (*ehem*Elesa*ehem*).
Eventually they branch out into random videos. Using Snapchat apps that guess who's your celebrity look alike (and somehow the twins end up with different people and they're like "we're twins???") or videos that Elesa snuck like when it's the Pokémon bath day, and, while some pokemon are gentle and easy... they have a lot of Pokémon that would disagree with water.
(And when Ingo goes missing, Emmet reaches out over social media. Turns out, the internet is the best detectives, because someone finds a picture of what looks like Ingo in a museum and is like "what the fuck??? When did this get here???" and THAT leads to time travel. The international police took a year to find nothing, but one call to the internet and about three weeks, and Emmet was sent a ton of historical records that just... appeared? And he realizes that he's going to need to hunt down a legendary to fix this).
(In the past, Akari is staring SO HARD at Ingo because oh hell this is the social media train influencer and how the hell is she supposed to explain that she knows who he is but only from that one video where he got bodied by a Mincino while discussing trains - he doesn't even know what a phone is!)
You are challenged by Subway Boss Emmet!
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cant wait to visit new york again and go into the subway and say is that a pokemon reference
I am now suspicious too. I wonder if their suit colors also reflect train colors.
In the main games, their regular uniforms are just black and white to fit the theme of the games they're from. But I'm convinced with Masters EX.
Again, the E5. Compare Emmet’s EX:
And now, the E6:
Compare Ingo’s EX:
I've had my suspicions about this since sometime in August last year. I'm actually fairly sure I'm right, but there's no way to confirm it, so.
I’m not sure about their new Masters EX alts, but I’m going to look into that and see what I can sort out!
I want to draw more so I try posting but also the thought of people perceiving my art terrifies me- it’s a constant battle-
I suck with remembering dates…and names…and everything, but I heard that it was @semisolidmind‘s birthday! So…Happy birthday Semi!
Why is this boi so hard to draw? I’ll never know.
Enjoy~
What’s it for? yeah.
Ingo Confirmed Canon Information - Bad at facial expressions but good as vocal expressions (his face looks very neutral even when he sounds excited) - Speaks very loudly, has no indoor voice - While this is more obvious in the Japanese games, Ingo speaks in a overly polite/formal way - Yells “BRAVO” when anything smth he finds exciting happens - Left handed Manga Depiction - Appears to be easily frustrated when losing battles - Emmet’s impulse control through brute force, will simply grab and remove Emmet when he’s being too abrasive - Repeats the name of the trains destinations in the speaker after Emmet does the first announcement. Maybe this is just a thing trains do but it’s important to me. - More expressive than in the games (not by a large margin) Pokemon Masters - Seems to have an overbearing sense of responsibility(?) - Hisui is not the first time he’s been transported into a different universe for unexplained reasons. - Does not seem to be aware that his face doesn’t show the emotions he’s feeling. - Most of his conversations are about trains and rail systems. Emmet Confirmed Canon Information - His face is always very expressive but he speaks in a monotone way ( he will look very excited and yet talk in a very neutral way) - While this is more obvious in the Japanese games, Emmet speaks in a more informal way than his brother - Gets very serious while battling - Right handed - Starts the majority of his sentences with “I am Emmet” - Says “very” as “verrrry” - Likes winning more than anything else - Prefers double battles
Manga - Will loudly announce he is going to eavesdrop on your conversation as he walks towards you - This depiction of Emmet appears to generally be louder and more energetic - Does this weird stiff walk a lot - Mainly does the location announcements on the train speakers. Idk how you call them.
Pokemon Masters - Really looks up to Ingo - Prefers the rules of a double battle - Puts a great deal of importance on safety - Seems to have a thing with combinations; he states multiple times that he loves combinations when it comes to pokemon battles and takes great interest in the sync pairs system. - Mentions Ingo a lot - Considers him and Ingo as “each other’s closest rivals”