I was flipping through the latest copy of Classic Trains. Towards the front is a picture of a box cab. This got me wondering how many box cabs are still out there and what is their current disposition? Any input?God Bless!Gerald W. Kopiasz

A number of the CN box cabs that ran in Montreal commutor service have been preserved.

Some diesel survivors are listed at the links below:http://www.thedieselshop.us/ALCOprsvd.HTMLhttp://www.thedieselshop.us/BLWprsvd.HTMLThere's also an EMD (B&O #50) at the Museum of Transporation in St. Louis (scroll down):http://www.museumoftransport.org/rails-2.htmIt doesn't appear that any Whitcomb boxcabs (like the one in the picture you mentioned) survived.

London & Port Stanley Railway #L1 still survives at the Elgin County Railway Museum in St. Thomas, Ontario. Also check out http://home.att.net/~Berliner-Ultrasonics/boxcabs0.html

I would suggest that you check out the website developed by S. Berliner, III, that pays homage to the box-cab diesel locomotive.You will find through the following link:ALCo-GE-IR Boxcabs Index PageHe has a page devoted to the survivors. Also he does also mention electric box cabs within the website.

Minneapolis, Anoka & Cuyuna Range ("Dan Patch Lines") #100 at the Minnesota Transportation Museum...

CNJ #1000, the first diesel-electric built for a US railroad at the B&O Railraod Museum

Foley Brothers 110-1, the only surviving 100 ton GE/IR (originally Alco/GE/IR design) boxcab is at the Portola Railroad Museum.Foley 110-1 was built in 1929 to work a Montana coal mine. It appears to have been in service until some time in the 1960's.

I grew up in Deer Lodge, MT where many MILW "Little Joes" and boxcabs were serviced. I know there are a few Little Joes left but are there any of the MILW boxcabs left?

Frank Hicks' list shows 3, 2 in Duluth and one (as I recall) in Harlowtown, MT.In general, there are very few railroad, as opposed to interurban, electric boxcabs left. The DD1 at the RRMPA and the P1 at the MOT come to mind. There may be a few others. I think the RRMPA has a PRR 6 wheel switcher.

Ingersol Rand 90 and 91 are at the Henry Ford Museum and the Illinois Railway Museum, I think. (can't remember which is which, and I helped paint the one at Ford 25 years ago)Steve Zuiderveen

At least one two-unit set of the Milwaukee box cabs is still in existance at the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth, Minn. http://www.lsrm.org/http://www.lsrm.org/Museum/10200.htm

You're quite correct, mainline electric boxcabs are pretty rare. RRMofPA, which has the best all-around collection of mainline electric equipment, has the DD1 and the B1 (the six-wheel switcher); there are the three MILW boxcabs you mentioned plus the PRR P5 prototype at MOT; a NYC T-motor is preserved in upstate New York (there are also three S-motors scattered around, though those are more "visibility cabs" than boxcabs); and there are three Mexicano GE boxcabs preserved in Mexico. There are also three "heavy interurban" boxcabs similar in size and carbody design to I-R boxcabs, one at NCTM and two in Ontario. That's about it. It's too bad none of the Virginian or N&W jackshaft boxcabs was saved, nor any of the 2-C+C-2 NH EP-3's or CUT/NYC P-motors.

I love this forum. Thanks for all the response. I also remember several MILW steeplecab switchers - any left?Scott

Uhm, aren't the AEM-7s and E60s technically boxcabs? Or are they classified differently?Also, I've always wondered how the Little Joes and New Haven "Jets" are classified. They aren't boxcabs, and they aren't steeplecabs either. What do you call them?Is the body of that Mack boxcab still at Kempton?