Joe,
You may be right. But while we may never learn if this step box was Q made or purchased from a contractor the preponderance of historical facts would lean to it being Q shop made.
-Your comments about cost effectiveness based on expensive union labor vs a non union shop would be correct for a post WWII Item. It was after the war when labor costs rose dramatically, along with the change to 5 day week and its’ cost increases.This item is in all likelihood a circa 1900 item when railroad labor was inexpensive.
-please reference the article in BRHS Bulletin 61 concerning the 1922 shopmens strike and the related railroad shop labor history leading up to that event. In summary, prior to WWI and the pro-labor Wilson administration, railroad shop labor was inexpensive. The men worked six days a week and up to whatever number of hours were needed to complete the tasks at hand. It was only during the war that shop labor made progress on working conditions and wages. After the war changes in Washington and surplus labor(returning soldiers) allowed the carriers to win back some of the gains made by shop labor through labor board awards. These changes were forced onto only shop labor, not operating or track maintenance labor. It was these reductions that brought the strike.(as full disclosure I researched and wrote the article)
-please reference the following articles in BRHS Bulletins and Zephyrs that repeatedly show the Q’s preference to be a fully vertically integrated and self sustaining operation.
These articles all discuss the extent the Q went to use labor to save material. Labor was cheap, material was expensive.
-Bulletin 59-“Parsimonoius- from scrap to stock” containing detailed information on the Q finding ways to reclaim material to build new cars out of it, save odd pieces of lumber and then build standard kits for wayside items and structures. Written by Rupert Gamlen.
-Bulletin 60 and 61 contain many examples of the Aurora shops using in house labor to save material by expending labor on it.(I am one of two of the authors)
-Zephyr 58 has a multi page article on the new system reclamation plant at which the Q had employees scrap cars,rail and any thing Q owned; salvage useable parts and material and then send that material out reconditioned or as useable other items.(I am the author)
As to your comment about using step boxes in commuter service. Maybe it did happen but I’ve never seen evidence of step boxes in suburban service. The dinkies didn’t have porters to set the boxes on the platforms. There were more cars and steps than trainman, even if they would handle step boxes. Having worked suburban as a trainman and Conductor I cannot picture the riders waiting to detrain for a step box to be in place.
Leo Phillipp
On Aug 31, 2020, at 8:02 AM, Joe Hardman <theoneafter909@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
[Edited Message Follows]
The metal box attached to the bottom appears to be similar to what the MORTON MANUFACTURING COMPANY of Chicago used on the foot stools it sold to major railroads for decades prior to the AMTRAK era. Therefore, the stool in question could be an early MORTON stool since the "Q" shops more than likely lacked the manufacturig capacity and staff to meet the needs of its extensite passenger - commuter car fleet. Even if capasity was not an issue one would think it would have been far more cost effective to purchase from what would have been a non union company at the time instead of using its own costly union labor.
Joe Hardman
Downers Grove, IL