Built between 1959 and 1960 by the St. Louis Car Company using recycled PCC streetcar components, the 1 to 50 series rapid transit cars were designed for one-man operation during off-peak periods. The motorman's cab had a large window through which he would sell tickets to passengers as they boarded the train. There was no conductor.
These cars were also the last series of cars designed for single unit operation. As their sister class, the 6000 series, introduced the concept of single-ended cars arranged back-to-back in consecutively numbered, “married pairs.”
This model is designed to use a Tomytec TM-20 chassis and Microtrains #905 Z scale body-mount couplers. This version represents a car set up for 3rd rail-only collection (a version representing a car set up for trolley pole collection is available here).