ELECTRIC BOXCABS - There were (and even are) jillions and zillions of other boxcab electrics; the Pennsy specialized in them and the Great Northern wasn't far behind.  However, this page overloaded, so I've separated out the electric boxcabs and created a new page, ELECTRIC BOXCABS, et seq.

OLD LINKS now directed to ELECTRIC BOXCABS Page:

MILW #102000.

Piedmont & Northern #5103 N&W's ELECTRIC BOXGON!

Odd Boxcabs

(Image cropped from '49 W. W. Rinn photo on Audio Visual Designs postcard)

(Image courtesy of the Berlinerwerke-Z -
which, in itself, should tell you something!)

(Photo 03 Mar 01 by and © Copyright 2001 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)

[More on the prototype V 32 001 below.]

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B&O 1865 Boxcab Steamer #316
Info and image from, and thanks to, Ed Bommer of Cooperstown, New York.

"#316 worked on Manhattan Island (NY City) from 1889 'til the delivery of boxcab diesel #1 in 1925.  Then it went to work on Staten Island.

I believe that when #1 had to be shopped for any reason (servicing, maintenance, wheel truing, etc.) #316 was snuck back to the City by barge on a dark night to do its thing 'til #1 got back to work.  There was no substitute locomotive for # 1 at the time.

The delivery in 1940 of SIRT's GE diesel loco would have provided a substitute for #1 (now #195) when needed.  The #316 would then remain on Staten Island.  SIRT's GE no doubt filled in for the #195 after its unscheduled dip in the Hudson and recovery at the Clifton Shops during the War.

WWII maintained the need for steam on Staten Island.  Daniel Willard, President of the B&O and chair of rail service coordination for the Federal government's war effort, had arranged that SIRT would handle all East coast hospital trains.  New York was only East Coast port of call for hospital ships serving the European Theatre of the War and Staten Island's piers at Stapleton were closest to NY Harbor's entry.

These hospital {trains}, as well as the troop and POW trains also handled on the SIRT, required steam for heat on the cars.  This kept #316 and other steam locos alive and well for quite a while into the 1940's." - Thanks, Ed!

The New York Central also had one or more boxcab Shay steamers for use on NY city streets:

NYC 1923 Boxcab Shay #1896
Image from The Shay Guru.

In addition, Tom Lawson advises (13 Feb 99) that the Union Freight R.R. had big 3-truck, 70-Ton Climax geared steam boxcabs running on Boston streets into the '40s.

From Ed Vasser's fabulous compilation of Climax locos, here are the three likely units [all standard gauge, class C, 80-ton (Ed' s Climax Roster line numbers noted)]:

Well, for one thing, Ed Vasser, himself, did; here, from his page on the Class A Climax locomotives used by Nicholas W. Heinemann on his operations in Colegrove and Crosby, Pennsylvania, is the engineer's side view of one of those Boxcab Steam Climaxes:

[Image from E. Vasser Climax site, credited to Julia Gallop - all rights reserved to source.]
{My thanks to Gerold Eckl for spotting this!}

Oops!  Lee Snover advises I have my Climaxii mixed; the Climax Manufacturing Co., of Corry, Pennsylvania, was the steam locomotive builder, while the Climax Engine Manufacturing Co. (later a division of Waukesha Motor Co., of Clinton, Iowa) was the maker of distillate engines for the Porter boxcabs.  Thanks, Lee!

Of course, there were zillions of steam dummies like #316 for use on city streets which resulted in steam boxcabs of sorts; that's what the NYC Shay was, really.

My all-time favo(u)rite STEAM BOXCAB has to be Tom Oversluizen's 1/7-scale Dutch steam dummy, which he runs at the Long Island Live Steamers; I call her "Lil' Green" and here she is on the LILS main with Tom at the helm:

Cropped 26 Feb 00 from 1976 image courtesy of Tom Oversluizen, 2000; all rights reserved.

What you can't see on this shot is that every single detail is there and WORKS, even down to tiny handles, hatches, and toolboxes!

Tom advises that she is called a "Dutch Steam Tram Engine" and that there were many companies operating these tramways in Holland (1880-1930) which were used as a means of local transportation, from farm to market and such,usually at the side of existing roads.  Normally they were a one-man operation.  He choose a rather big one (21 tons) for this model that operated on standard gauge.  There were several that operated on as small as 75cm {30"} gauge.  Tom was lucky to see some of them during the war years when they were put back in service to provide some form of transportation because of the lack of liquid fuels.  This model is named "Verhoop" because of the valve gear developed by a Dutch engineer of that name especially for these small inside-cylindered engines.  It looks a bit like Joy gear but is much better.  Her scale is basically 1/8 but, to make her a little stronger, Tom made her at an actual 1/7.  She weighs 225 lbs.  Tom built her with running on the LILS track in mind and she didn't let him down!  Water is carried in her side tanks (1 gallon) and coal is usually stacked in briquettes on the foot plate (full size).  He feeds her with two injectors and a steam pump.  He ran her for 20 years on the LILS track but now she is ready for an overhaul and a paint job.

On 31 Jul 2004, out at the LI Live Steamers, Tom gave me this beautiful shot of her:   (01 Aug 04)

Slightly cropped 31 Jul 04 from from image courtesy of Tom Oversluizen; all rights reserved.

(Image from Westmodel by specific permission - all rights reserved to Westmodel.)
[Thumbnail image - click on the photo for a larger image.]

They DO make a similar unit, their #10050 in HO, the Prussian S9 loco in the Kuhn-Wittfeld version, with TWO box cabs (so to speak - "teilverkleidet" - "partially disguised"):

(Image from Westmodel by specific permission - all rights reserved to Westmodel.)
[Thumbnail image - click on the photo for a larger image.]

(photos lightened from very dark images courtesy of D. Self - all rights reserved)
{see also below}

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(Images from Sr. Benoit.)

The two were received in January, 1921, and entered service on the Montevideo-Santiago Vazquez line on 14 May 1922; here are another shot dated 12 Nov 22 (but almost certainly taken the same day as the above - note all the junk laying around on the ground) of their fitting out/rebuilding and a grainy news photo of their inauguration:

(Images from Sr. Benoit.)

However, in October of that same year, both units were stored because they turned out to be highly unreliable and not suitable for a short line of 20 km (12½ miles); their steam pressure was too high.  They were stored until 1929 when they were converted to petrol-electric and run on other lines owned by the State Railway.  In 1948, both of them were converted to diesel-electric railcars.  In 1963, they were converted into a two-car diesel electric railcar (Buda engine).  Car 101 had the engine and car 102 was a cab car (trailer) only.  These photos show them in service at Sayago:

(Images from Sr. Benoit.)

Can anyone help identify the sources of these railcars?

Here, from Dick Bolt's collection, is Boston & Albany's "Berkshire":   (31 Jan 03)

She's probably an inspection engine, but she's got a boxy cab, eh?  Dig that boarding ladder fo'ard!

For the N&W's #7 electric BOXGON (or whatever they call it?), see Electric Boxcabs.

All of this is spelled out in excruciating detail in Extra 2200 South ("a quarterly magazine dedicated to railroad diesel locomotives in North America"), Issue No. 42, Sep-Oct 73 (out of print).

This page overloaded, so I moved the Tex-Mex coverage to its own page.

Now for some even odder boxcabs:

First, we'll go back to the beginnnings.  Thanks once more to Mark Laundry; we now have a photo and description of the 1924 Russian Lomonosov boxcab locomotive; from the comprehensive " The European Railway Picture Gallery" on "The European Railway Server" of Marco van Uden, here it is:

(Photographer unknown - scanned by Oleg Izmerov, ,
from The European Railway Picture Gallery, linked above.)
[Thumbnail image - click on photo for larger image.]

(Photo from TRAIN SHED CYCLOPEDIA No. 20.)
[Thumbnail image - click on photo for larger image.]   (restored 14 Aug 04)

[Ooops!  Look at the doors; unless the two sides differ,
these are NOT the same locomotive!]

The Gallery's text, paraphrased:  E_el-2 (at first classed as Yu_e-001) is one of the oldest diesel-electric locomotives in the world.  It was designed in Russia by Professor Yu. Lomonosov, and built in November 1924 at the Esslingen plant in Germany for the Russian railways.  From 1925 on, E_el-2 was in Russia, used with experimental trains near Moscow.  In 1928 the diesel cooling system was modernized and E_el-2 was used by the Middle-Asian Railroad in Russia.  It endured very hard service in deserts, mountains, and the great arid steppes.  The E_el-2 was proof of the possibilities and future of diesel locomotives {ALCo might dispute that}.  It worked trains for nearly 30 years.  It was only taken out off service in 1954.  Technical parameters:  1,200 hp MAN Diesel 6V45/42, traction power: 900 hp/axle, 1-5-1 (2-10-2), traction generator: BBC, 800 kW, traction motors: 5*142 kW, tractive force: 15200 kg {33,516#}, full weight: 124,8 tonnes {122.8 tons}, length: 14,2 m {46' 7"}, height: 5,2 m {17'}, width: 3,1 m {10' 2"}, traction wheel dia.: 1,22 m {48"}.
(English measure dimensions added 14 Aug 04)

The photo shows E_el-2 after the first test in Esslingen, on 06 Nov 1924, with the designers and guests near the locomotive.

TRAIN SHED CYCLOPEDIA No. 20 also shows, in the 1927 section, an almost identical loco built with a gear transmission and magnetic clutches:

(Photo from TRAIN SHED CYCLOPEDIA No. 20.)
[Thumbnail image - click on photo for larger image.]   (restored 14 Aug 04)

(Drawings from TRAIN SHED CYCLOPEDIA No. 20.)
[Thumbnail image (upper only) - click on photo for larger image.]

(Drawing and photo from TRAIN SHED CYCLOPEDIA No. 20.)

Douglas Self {see also above} has a page on the V 32 001 at A German Diesel-Pneumatic Locomotive and kindly allowed me to reproduce the photos here:

[third picture restored 18 Feb 06]
(photos lightened from very dark images courtesy of D. Self - all rights reserved)

Odder Boxcabs continues on Boxcabs Page 5a.   (18 Jan 06)