Saturday straphangers were among the first to ride on a blast from the past, as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority brought back a vintage subway train for the holiday season.

The Nostalgia Shoppers' Special Train will run on the Sixth Avenue line between Queens Plaza and Second Avenue in Manhattan on Saturdays until Christmas Eve.

"These cars ran on the A line during the '40s when I was a boy. I never rode them then because I always rode on the E to go out to Queens. And I used to think, 'Oh god, these are so beautiful, with the fluorescent lights,'" said one rider.

"This train reminds me very much of some trains that I took, I think, on the C line in the 1970s under Eighth Avenue," said another.

The trains depart five times a day in both directions, from about 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.