Re: Interesting steam powered passenger car

These type of passenger cars with a steam boiler in them were not all company inspection cars, and many were narrow gauge. There were different builders that made them for light passenger service, and they could sometime pull another coach. And this went way back into the 1860s.
For example a company called Grice & Long built CN#17 in 1862 for the 3' Ligonier Valley RR in a Combine Car size of 20'7" long, 7'4" wide and body 6.5'high. They sold it in March 1883 to the Camden, Gloucester & Mt Ephraim Ry in Camden, NJ for commuter train service. It had a 0-2-4 wheel arrangement with 30" dirivers and 6x10" cylinders. It is unknown how long it stood up to the heavy passenger traffic against 2-4-2T and 4-4-0 all of 36 inch gauge. Seems the story is, they scared the horses more than regular locomotives that the horses got used to. But who can prove that to be fact or fiction? There were far more of them than the records now show. Since they were built lighter, they did not hold up over the years and replaced by the trolley.
Some of then became non-revenue inspection cars.