A Painstakingly Illustrated Catalog of Manhattan’s Subway Tile Mosaics

In the chaos of navigating New York City's busy subway system, few of its millions of daily passengers have the opportunity to appreciate what each station actually looks like. 

Thanks to freelance art director Adam Chang’s obsessively compiled NY Train Project, now you can.

Last summer, Chang spent about 20 hours riding and waiting for trains. He made a stop at each of the 118 stations in Manhattan and photographed its tiled signage. Chang then went home and spent the last year carefully illustrating each mosaic digitally.

The result is a comprehensive visual tour of the various train lines, where you can soak in the distinct mosaic design at each stop. 

Denizens of the outer boroughs — don’t fret! Chang has plans to give all the stations in the city the same treatment. 

In an email, Chang writes that his favorites of the bunch  — including the Bleecker St. station on the 6 train and the Canal St. station on the N/Q/R trains — were also the most difficult to create.

Here’s a selection of them, along with the “fun facts” Chang included with each sign he reproduced.