{"nrhp_refnum":"79002271","name":"Passenger Day Coach No. 8177","other_names":[],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"E of Strasburg","address_restricted":false,"city":"Strasburg","county":"Lancaster County","state":"PA","lat":39.982416870000066,"lon":-76.16077163499995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-12-17","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Transportation","Invention"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Passenger Day Coach #8177, a wooden beam passenger car of Pennsylvania Railroad Class PH, built by the Pennsylvania Railroad's Juniata Shops in 1896 and now associated with Strasburg, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It is one of several Pennsylvania Railroad rolling stock examples nominated as a thematic group.","why_significant":"The nomination presents the car as a transitional design between the open-ended passenger car and the enclosed vestibule that allowed passengers to walk between cars without exposure on an open platform. It seats 48 and has a semi-closed vestibule described as the forerunner of the closed type. The nomination ties the car to the wider development of safe covered passageways between railroad cars, which it dates to Pullman's 1887 vestibule patent.","narrative":"Built in 1896 at the Juniata Shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad, Passenger Day Coach #8177 is a wooden beam car of the PH class. It has a body length of 30 feet, a wheelbase of 19 feet 11 inches, and seats 48 passengers. Its semi-closed vestibule marks a step in the development of enclosed passageways between cars. Railroad engineers had tried covered connections since patents were first granted in 1852, and canvas curtains proved impractical in 1857. The Pullman Company's narrow vestibule, patented in 1887 and first tested on the Illinois Central Railroad in April of that year, provided a closed passage between cars while trains were in motion. The PH class sits between the open-ended car and that later design. The car is one of several Pennsylvania Railroad rolling stock examples nominated together as a thematic group, and the nomination states that all the cars are genuine rather than replicas.","period_of_significance":"1896","architect_builder":"Pennsylvania Railroad Juniata Shops","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":null,"vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:32.303342-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/79002271.pdf"},"photo":null,"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71993195","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":null},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/lancaster-county/passenger-day-coach-no-8177-79002271/"}