Length: 75 feet (22.86 meters)

 

Weight: 78 tons (156,000 pounds)

 

Built: Standard Steel Car Co., 1927

 

Baltimore & Ohio 1444 is a “combine” car (combination baggage and coach). One-third of the car was for baggage and the remaining two-thirds was coach space for passengers. The car was built in 1927 by the Standard Steel Car Co. for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. After 1960, the car was renumbered as X-4046 and used in wreck train service as a tool car.

 

When the B&O became part of CSX Transportation in the mid-1980s, the car remained in wreck train service as number 940660MWT. CSX donated the car to BSRM in 1991. The combine was restored by museum volunteers into B&O “Royal Blue” paint and was parked at Lenox Station. The car formerly housed our “Gilded Age” exhibit of railroads and local mansions.

 

In 2013, volunteers removed the exhibit and prepared the car to become our new ticket office and gift shop for our planned Hoosac Valley excursion service that is scheduled to begin in 2014 in North Adams, Massachusetts.