Tichy is perhaps best known for his association with the Pennsylvania Railroad, for which he created the infamous "Clamshell", an aluminum and steel canopy over the electronic ticketing area, in Penn Station’s Main Waiting Room in New York City.

[6] At Enola, Tichy created a dormitory that provided "neat," "quiet," and "comfortable" accommodations for Railroad men in need of a place to retire after long freight runs.

[10] The Pennsylvania, confronting mounting passenger losses, contracted with Tichy to replace Penn Station's grand Savarin dining room with a series of two bowling alleys in an attempt to raise cash off its cavernous – but cash-bleeding – Manhattan facility.

In 1954, Tichy himself "prepared plans for an orderly demolition" of the beloved station, and began associating with real estate titans William Zeckendorf and Benjamin Swig.

[11] "Whether desperately or cynically," wrote The New York Times, railroad executives "seemed to understand that redevelopment of their money-losing, nine-acre station would be more palatable if the public could be made to forget the glories of Mr. McKim's original design.

[12] Erected at a cost of $2 million, Tichy's "Clamshell" housed a new-fangled electronic ticket center that was "supposed to convince passengers that railroading was as modern as flying.

Architectural Forum described Tichy's early demolition plans as "how to turn a monument into cash," and heralded his three-stage scheme for "shrinking the glory to fatten the revenue.

"[14] After a series of starts and stops, the Pennsylvania Railroad did eventually refine and deploy Tichy's demolition and redevelopment concept to destroy the original Penn Station and construct Madison Square Garden on top.