I wanted to be in the first car of the 3 train for some reason. I waited in the construction area of the platform on 42nd street, going downtown. The workers had left a door open and there were exposed cables everywhere. A sign reminded me not to cross the tracks. It is just so tempting to walk into the dark tunnels. The train pulled into the station and I drew the key features for a few seconds.
At the end of the day the first car was the last car and I left the train through the back entrance of the 96th street station, which is on 93rd street. There it was, the pretty abused looking Metrocard testing machine. This is the device that is often covered in Metrocards which are then tested one by one by people who hope for some remaining fraction of a fare. Just to save a few cents.
Attached to the machine is a box for used metrocards. Somebody broke the container to gain access to the used metrocards. The golden metrocards. (The first ones were blue.)