This 10-1-2 Heavyweight Sleeper is painted Tuscan Red with a black roof mask; lettering is in Pennsylvania Railroad’s ‘Buff’color. It was built in 1911 by Pullman as the ‘El Monte.’ It was rebuilt in 1931 and named ‘Villa Royal,’ a work equipment car. It ran through the Eastern District up into the 1960s on six-wheel RPO trucks. The Pullman 10-1-2 Heavyweight Sleepers were built from the Pullman Plan# 3585—construction was modular, making it possible for floor plans to
economically evolve with the times. Cars were generally in service through the 1960s.

The introduction of the steel cars brought the end of the luxurious, artisan-crafted and custom-designed wooden cars which had been the rule since the 1880s. With the opening of the Pennsylvania Station in New York in 1910 and the Grand Central Terminal in 1913, passenger safety in the tunnels approaching these buildings demanded a more noncombustible material than wood.