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Getting Real Column - 4
their way every bit as distinctive and unique as the Milwaukee
rib-side cars. There is a fine article by Pat Wider about the
wagon tops, in Railway Prototype Cyclopedia (Vol. 9, 2003,
pages 1–25). Recently ExactRail has produced a superb model
of a Class M-53 car, as shown here. This class was not the only
wagon-top class, but was among nearly 5000 cars of this design
built by B&O (3).
But the largest single class of B&O boxcars was the M-26 class,
very similar in design and execution to the Pennsylvania X29
boxcar. Like the X29, the B&O M-26 cars were essentially built
to the 1923 American Railway Association proposed standard
all-steel boxcar. There were some 14,000 cars in six distinct
sub-classes, a major group of boxcars for any railroad. A fine
3
3: My two signature Baltimore & Ohio boxcars are seen
here together, the one on the left the M-26, one of more
than 14,000 cars of that type, and on the right, the
famous “wagon-top” class M-53. Both models are injec-
tion-molded styrene, and are from Red Caboose on the
left, ExactRail on the right.
index contents
MRH-Apr 2013