In October 1954, the Long Island Rail Road placed an order for twenty-five 120 seat commuter coaches for locomotive drawn trains. This order, delivered from the Pullman Standard’s Osgood Bradley plant in Worcester, Massachusetts, was delivered in June, 1955 and the cars were numbered 2901 thru 2925. Coach #2924 was included in this order.
The #2924 soldiered on in commuter service behind steam and diesel locomotives until Fall, 1999 when the P-72’s were replaced by C-3 bi-level coaches in the railroad’s new DE/DM diesel fleet.
Coach #2924 was donated to the Railroad Museum of Long Island to be preserved due to its historic significance. On October 8, 1955, #2924 along with #2923, participated in an “End of Steam Ceremony” on the Long Island Rail Road. Coach #2924 carried a carload of Boy Scouts from Brooklyn behind Steam Engine No. 39 to Hicksville Station, where it met nose-to-nose with Steam Engine No. 35 carrying coach #2923. Dubbed “Operation Changeover – Boy Scouts Rail Jamboree,” a small ceremony was held on the platform at Hicksville with speeches touting progress on the railroad. Coach #2924 was then uncoupled from Engine No. 39 and coupled to Diesel No. 1556 which returned it with the Boy Scouts to Jamaica. Coach #2923 was uncoupled from Engine No. 35 and coupled to Diesel No. 1555 which then returned to Riverhead. After all the people had left the station, Engine No. 39 was coupled to Engine No. 35 and the two locomotives dead-headed to Morris Park to be retired from service, the Long Island Rail Road had modernized and no longer had any use for steam locomotives on their property!
P-72 #2924 September 11, 2016 Memorial Street Art Mural
P-72 #2924 September 9, 2017 Memorial Street Art Mural
In remembrance of the fifteenth anniversary of the 9-11 attacks on America, the Railroad Museum of Long Island partnered with Mr. Patrick Voorhees and the “Remember M.E.” organization on September 11, 2016 to dedicate the north side of P-72 #2924 to those people, fire fighters and police officers who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. Annually, as close to September 11th as possible, Mr. Voorhees and select Street Artists paint a new mural on the coach to revitalize and impress each year that “We Will Never Forget!”
As delivered paint scheme of “Goodfellow Grey” with black roof, 2016