Are there any BQ23-7s still running today? Or even in existence now?

Reminds me of a comment made by the late Bill Nedden years ago... The typical trolley car is three windows wide and about twelve windows long. Considering that on a fan trip, all the fans want a front window, they should have been built twelve windows wide, and only three windows long :-)

Good grief, man! If you're going to do it, why not do it right?

Inspection locomotives, as a genre, were surely outside the box when it came to aesthetics. It would seem to require a special mindset to want to ride in that setup. The overall style statement almost reminds me of the dreaded telescope wreck. I wonder if the officials properly descended those curved front staircases while facing the locomotive.

I'm wondering what the inside configuration was? It's not like you can put coach seats in there, you've got the boiler taking up so much of the space. How were the passengers accommodated? Even ignoring the whole "If she throws a rod, you'll be the first to know..." issue, looks cramped and uncomfortable except maybe in winter.

That's an interesting question. I would suspect, given that the purpose was inspection, that they had bench seats astride the boiler, so the "inspectors" sat facing out the windows. Kind of a reverse "bowling alley" configuration.

2. Looks like those windows are set in place. No room to lift and the framing would prevent them from dropping. So, roasted at 350 for one division length till done. No wonder they said RR officials were hard boiled.

Unless one escaped to the proverbial quarry that you all love; none survived the first decade of the 21st century.