MTH - Premier Heavyweight Passenger Cars - 2-Car 70 ft.Madison Comb/Din Passenger Set - O Scale 3 Rail

The steel passenger car was in large part a byproduct of the building of New York's Pennsylvania Station. In 1901 the Pennsylvania Railroad, under President A.J. Cassatt, began the construction of its gateway into Manhattan. Until then, Pennsy passengers bound for New York de-trained in Jersey City and crossed the Hudson River by ferry to their final destination - while travelers on rival New York Central went straight to Grand Central Station. A key element of the Penn Station project was long tunnels under the Hudson, and another set of tunnels under the East River to link up with Pennsy subsidiary Long Island Rail Road. Cassatt was adamant that the cars going through his tunnels be fireproof, a requirement that the wooden cars of the era could not satisfy. The search for a steel car design was on.

With Cassatt's support, and that of George Westinghouse as well, New York's Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) was also looking for fireproof subway cars around the same time. Thus in 1904, in time for the IRT's opening, the first American regular-production steel cars were delivered to the IRT by American Car and Foundry (ACF), based on the designs of IRT technical engineer George Gibbs; similar suburban commuter cars went to Pennsy's LIRR.