passenger train step boxes

[NW Mailing List]

Rick Stone is correct about passenger train step boxes staying with the cars.  This photo is the B&O Capitol Limited/Columbian at Martinsburg WV in mid 1960's.  To the left in the photo is a coach attendant standing with his left foot on a step box.

As long as B&O operated a commuter train between Brunswick MD and Washington DC, the coaches for that train were parked over night and weekends on a siding parallel to the eastbound main, and out of sight from the rest of the area. The step boxes were left on the ground at each vestibule. So the step boxes started to disappear, especially over the weekends.  I heard a story of someone who had stolen a step box.  He went back at a later date for another one and discovered that you couldn't lift them.  B&O had filled them with concrete.  The commuter runs still exist as MARC trains, operated by the state of Maryland. I don't think the MARC trains use step boxes.

--Rick Morrison
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