What’s a Line Box? Or, What is in the large and heavy box that is seen carried into a locomotive on each trip?

July 17, 2019, 1:15 PM
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A Line Box is a box or trunk that is taken on board the locomotive for every trip. It contains the working timetable, and essential equipment such as detonators and flares, perhaps the driver’s log and a few personal items should he wish to keep them there. (Most drivers have a separate bag with a change of clothes and other personal items.) It may also hold drawings of the pneumatic and electrical systems and other basic essentials that the driver might need to troubleshoot the loco in case any problems arise. The box also used to contain a couple of spare lamps for the headlights, although this is no longer neccesary with the twin beam sealed headlamps.

The box follows the locomotive driver rather than being assigned to a specific locomotive, so it moves with him as he switches to different locos during his normal duty links. The equipment and materials in the box are signed out to the driver, and he is deemed responsible for them for the entire period that he is ‘on line’. (This contrasts with the system in some other railways of having log books and equipment that ‘belong’ to the locomotive and is just signed over from one crew to the other when they take over.) The box being a fairly heavy one, usually necessitates a couple of station staff lifting it and carrying it from one end of the platform to another depending on where the locomotive for the next trip of the driver will be.

Source – IFRCA.org

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