Payload Logo

The New York Public Library’s book train will make your nerdiest dreams come true

By Max de Haldevang
Published

Say goodbye to book stacks and aching backs. The New York Public Library is reopening its stunning Rose Reading Room with a special addition: a whizzing book train that looks like something out of Wallace and Gromit.

In the video above, the train’s carriages zoom at every possible angle, as it traverses 11 levels of the library, from an underground storage lair below Bryant Park, to the iconic reading room, beloved of writers like Norman Mailer, E.L. Doctorow, and Isaac Bashevis Singer.

$2.6 million well spent.

📬 Sign up for the Daily Brief

Our free, fast and fun briefing on the global economy, delivered every weekday morning.