B&M steel commuter coaches

I was discussing the postwar B&M commuter coach fleet with a friend the other day. I mentioned seeing in several videos PRR P-54s, Lackawanna Boontons, and Reading coaches, all painted maroon. When were these steel cars acquired? My friend says some the P-54s were sold off by PRR in the late '30s. I thought the steel cars came postwar, similar to the situation where the P-RSL was told by the NJ state Public Utilities Commission to replace the wooden MU equipment.

The B & M was never ordered to retire its wooden coaches, however the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities encouraged the road to phase them out. Starting in 1940, the B & M shopped around for used steel cars and its first big purchase was over 100 cars from the PRR. 117 cars, I believe. One accound says they were electrics and de-powered. Another account says they were steam coaches. MP-54 or P-54? Secondhand cars came over the next decade or so from DL & W, Reading (78 cars I think), NYC, P & LE, over 400 in all. The DL & W cars were built by Barney & Smith. There were also about 8 or 10 air-conditioned heavyweights from the C & O from early 1930s and some Erie milk cars. In the wooden car era, the B & M managed to buy 21 1935 Osgood-Bradley American Flyer commuter cars!

See also James Van Bokkelen's B&M roster.

Thanks for the information. I didn't realize that so much used steel equipment came to the B&M before the war.

The Reading cars were not exclusively used on commuter trains. George Drury wrote an article in TRAINS about 30 years ago on his junior high years in Reading, Mass. and there's a photo of a train bound for North Conway with a Reading car in the consist. The C & O cars were ac and assigned to longer haul trains.