Introduced by Pullman-Standard as a replacement for aging commuter cars, the soon nicknamed “Comet” cars were first built between 1970 and 1973 for the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad’s services out of New Jersey. 

Given their success with the E-L and then New Jersey Transit, the use of the Comet car quickly spread to other commuter agencies. Boston’s Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority received their first cars in 1978, Metro-North and Connecticut DOT (or ConnDOT) in 1983, Philadelphia’s SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) in 1987, and Montreal’s AMT (Agence métropolitaine de transport) in 1989. In 2008, SEPTA and Frontrunner of Salt Lake City received original E-L/NJT Comet cars to bolster their fleets. Additionally, LA’s Metrolink leased the Frontrunner cars from 2008 to 2010 due to a fleet shortage.

The original “Comet” cars built for the E-L were designed strictly for low platforms, but upgrades to the car design by Pullman-Standard (and later Bombardier) evolved the “Comet” design to support both high- and low-platform boarding, and feature amenities such as on-board washrooms, accessible seating and, after 1990, a wide center door for highplatform boarding.

   The Rapido Trains HO scale Comet Cars features:

•  Designed from field measurements as well as original blueprints and documents.
• Full interior detail including individual seats, and unparalleled underbody detail incl. all pipes and boxes
• Extremely free-rolling inside-bearing trucks with metal wheelsets
• Tinted windows and accurate painting and lettering
• All-wheel electrical pickup and advanced circuitry for flicker-free lighting on both DC and DCC layouts
• Coaches feature controllable interior and end marker lights using the included magnetic wand
• Cab Coach lighting controlled using the magnetic wand on both DC and DCC layouts