Lionel 2227550 Pennsylvania Vision Horse Car #5024, O Scale

Racehorses riding the rails? It was a bigger business than you'd expect! For over a century the railroads were the safest and fastest way to move these valuable thoroughbreds across the country to various racetracks and events. A commodity this valuable would never be trusted to standard stock cars and over a dozen railroads had specialized cars for this service. Cars were typically designed similar to express baggage cars for handling on passenger train schedules and consists. Opening end doors were another common feature which made the cars more versatile for carriages, stage props or other large objects. In many cases, the horse stalls could be collapsed allowing a wide open interior for nearly any type of load which kept these cars in service year round. Unlike people, racehorses didn't change cars if their journey took them across multiple rail lines, states or even international boundaries. So seeing a Pennsylvania horse car on a crack Santa Fe passenger train or vice versa