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A vestibule 6 feet 6 inches wide extended across the center of each car. Controls on the vestibule walls could be used to operate all double doors on one side of the entire train or to operate the door at the vestibule location individually. At the same location, the conductor could plug his microphone into the train intercom system. On one of the walls across the vestibule from the door controls and microphone connection was an emergency brake valve. The operating compartment of each car was equipped with two-way radio and speedometer.
At one end of each car was a vestibule which contained the operating compartment. The cars were generally joined together at the "blind" ends into pairs. The operating controls, brake valve, and radio-intercom system were operable only in the cab in which the engineer was controlling.
There were two rows of double seats in the lower level of each car and two rows of single seats in the upper level. The section of the car next to the operating compartment seated 48 persons in the lower level and 30 in the upper level. The section at the "blind" end of the car seated 44 in the lower level and 43 in the upper.
The brake system employed dynamic braking as well as electropneumatic-hydraulic, on-tread braking, with composition brakeshoes. The engineer could use the electropneumatic braking alone or could select the combination, in which the dynamic braking blended automatically with the on-tread braking.
Fully automatic, flat-face, hook-type SW 800 couplers also automatically joined the air and electric lines. The couplers, yokes, and draft gears, which were mounted in the center sills, provided an anti-climbing arrangement which, in conjunction with the design of the car ends, complied with Federal regulations.
The car bodies were modified monocoques of Corten A steel. The underframe of each car was made from built—up sections welded together. The sides were 0.0677-inch-thick steel sheets, which were welded to the framing. (See Figure 5.)
At each end of the cars, there were two vertical end members (collision posts), designed to comply with Federal regulations. Each collision post consisted of a 3/8-inch channel with an 8-1/2-inch web and 3-inch flanges and extended from the underframe to the top framing of the roof. (The design of the attachment to the underframe is shown in Figure 5.)
