The Composite was a New York City Subway car class built from 1903 to 1904 by the Jewett, St. Louis, Wason, and John Stephenson companies[1] for the Interborough Rapid Transit Company and its successor, the New York City Board of Transportation.

It was also widely believed that a steel car would be very loud, and poorly insulated from temperature extremes such as heat and cold.

The IRT knew that the October 27, 1904 opening of the new subway route was fast approaching and that rolling stock had to be designed and built soon or the line would not be ready.

With time running short to order rolling stock, a wood-based alternative had been proposed – a protected wooden car to be known as a Composite.

[3] Engineering work began on the protected wooden cars, and two Composite prototypes were ordered from Wason in 1902.

They were originally numbered 1 and 2, and named the August Belmont (after the president of the IRT) and the John B. McDonald (after the first subway's contractor), respectively.

Each was designed to sample different features and amenities – the Belmont explored the possibility of offering a "first class" service (which never materialized), while the McDonald tested a layout intended to be more standard.

After thorough evaluation of all features of both prototype cars, it was time to decide on a design for the Composites to be ordered for the subway.

In 1903, George Gibbs used his influence to contract with the Pennsylvania Railroad's shops in Altoona to build an all-steel prototype for the new subway.

Along with similar all-steel equipment that arrived later, the Gibbs cars would eventually phase the Composites out of subway service.

Meanwhile, as the effort to design a steel car continued in 1903, the IRT awaited the arrival of the Composites.

[3][4] The two Composite prototypes (cars 1 and 2 – the August Belmont and John B. McDonald) never saw passenger service in the tunnels of the IRT subway.

August Belmont became an instruction car, while John B. McDonald was used to distribute payroll to employees until 1917.

In 1917, one year after the production fleet of Composite cars had been converted for service on the elevated division, the prototype John B. McDonald was also converted and added to the elevated fleet where it ran alongside the rest of the Composite cars.

As a result of these two fears – fire and collision – the 477 remaining Composites were transferred during 1916 to serve on the elevated division of the IRT.

Because of their added weight even with the lighter trucks, the Composites had to run without passengers in the anti-peak direction of their rush hour trips.

The entire Composite car fleet had been transferred to the elevated lines in Manhattan by December 1916.

[3] Because of the concerns over wooden construction, the Composites employed a number of vintage, turn-of-the-20th-century mechanisms to reduce the risk of fire.

Since the adverse health effects of such were not yet fully known nor understood, asbestos was present in numerous locations throughout the car, most notably under the floors, and around any electrical wiring.

[3] As originally delivered, the cars featured manual "Armstrong" doors, a reference to the "strong arm" that would be needed by trainmen to open them.

This meant that each train of Composites required a number of trainmen to operate doors at each station stop.

[3] Route destinations and service patterns were indicated to riders by means of steel signs placed in holders along the side of the cars, near the doors.

[3] Tunnel lighting was accomplished by means of kerosene lanterns hung on the front and rear of each train.

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.

[3] Additionally, like all of the old high voltage equipment, the cars featured a ten-point brass controller with manual acceleration, which required motormen to notch up gradually as the train came up to speed.

Should a motorman advance too quickly with the controller handle, however, a device would actually prevent the car's propulsion system from notching up at too rapid a rate.

Mounted on the top of the controller handle was a button, which had to be depressed at all times acting as a deadman's switch, which would automatically apply the train's emergency brakes should the motorman let go.

While this modification added weight to the trailer cars, the load on each wheel was still within the acceptable range to run on elevated structures.

[3] When it had been decided to transfer the Composites to the elevated division of the IRT in 1916, the cars' braking was modernized further.

As part of the modifications for elevated service, the Composites were equipped with AMUE schedule braking from 1916 until their retirement.