In their earliest days of service, operating crews frequently called them Steels to distinguish them from the wooden BU elevated cars.

To do this, the BRT hired engineer Lewis B. Stillwell to design the cars, based on his work in the railway industry.

In September 1913, a wooden mockup of Stillwell's Standard design was placed on display in Brooklyn for the public and received generally positive reviews.

In approximately 1919 and 1920, the passenger compartment of the oldest cars was upgraded to add fans, additional lighting, and more places for standees to hold on.

The modification involved connecting 9-point jumpers between cars to pass along electric door control signals from the conductor's position.

Exterior guard lights had to be added to all cars on all divisions equipped with MUDC (Multiple Unit Door Control).

The last of the cars were retired from passenger service in 1969, making a final run on the BMT Myrtle Ave. Line on August 4, 1969.

[citation needed] The A/B Standards, when ordered, were a noticeable upgrade in the quality of New York's urban transportation.

This design is covered under U.S. patent 1,142,263, with Mr. William S. Menden (chief engineer, and later general manager of the BRT) as the inventor.

The cars were built with a very strong frame that utilized truss construction and allowed thin metal to be used for the side plating.

This design was believed to better distribute the car's weight to provide the best adhesion between the wheels and the rails to prevent wheelslip.

The A/B Standards had short rattan benches arranged in both transverse (forward- or rear-facing) and longitudinal (sideways-facing) positions.

Due to higher than anticipated ridership, metal straps were added above longitudinal seats to improve standee accommodations in 1919–1920.

Each window came with a shade that could be drawn down to block out sunlight, or raised if a rider desired more natural light.

During the 1919–20 modifications, the cars were unitized into new arrangements (see letter designations below) and converted to allow one conductor to control an entire train's doors.

However, during the 1950s, the New York City Subway made a system wide shift to sealed beam headlights to improve safety.

The new WABCO couplers automatically made and broke electric and air connections as trains were coupled or uncoupled.

For example, IRT crews had to physically connect or disconnect high voltage jumper cables when coupling or uncoupling their trains.

Coupling and uncoupling, therefore, were much simpler on these cars than on equipment that came before them Also introduced was the rollsign to the New York City Subway, an innovation that would be repeated on many other rolling stock orders.

Rollsigns simplified the process by allowing train crews to update the sign's display by merely turning a hand crank (which would later be replaced with an allen wrench to prevent tampering in later rolling stock).

In the mid-40s, the Board of Transportation experimented with different interior paint schemes as an alternative to the more usual olive drab.

It was finally decided to paint the BMT cars with a light apple green and olive drab combination, and this was applied as well to the IRT Steinways, both regular and World's Fair, that were now being maintained in the Coney Island Shops.

This had to be the case to make the electrical contacts to allow all of the motor cars of a train to draw power in a synchronized effort from the third rail.

However, the conductor had a 600 volt knife switch located inside his control panel to activate the ventilation system and other accessories.

Therefore, the top speed of this type car was somewhat low, when compared to other rapid transit equipment that has historically run in New York City.

A handful of A/B Standards became the first New York City subway cars to experiment with a public address system.

The underlying rationale for the experiment was to allow trains to run safely at closer headways to provide more frequent service.

It was not until the 1990s that a similar idea would be revisited in the subway, when MTA New York City Transit installed modern CBTC signal equipment on the BMT Canarsie Line.

These were relegated to work service and not used again until 1953, when 2 of the regular motor cars (2006 and 2330) were damaged in an accident near Broad St.

The decision was made to use the revised circuitry and also add a single light fixture in the corner opposite the motorman's cab.