Thundering through West Penn. Under blue skies and scattered clouds, the Reading & Northern's big T-1 Northern #2102 thunders north through the tiny Pennsylvania borough of West Penn, taking one of the line's famous "Iron Horse Rambles" passenger excursions from Reading to Jim Thorpe. Restored over a 6-year period from 2016 to 2022, the 2102 is one of four surviving Reading T-1s and one of two that are either operating or undergoing restoration to operate. The Reading T-1 class engines started out life in 1923 as I-Class, 2-8-0 Consolidations, but between 1945 and 1947, 30 of these locomotives were modified to the configuration seen here. Designed as heavy freight locomotives, these beasts had a theoretical 79,100 lbs of tractive effort with their booster engines running. When the steam era was drawing down in the late 1950s, the Reading Company used 4 of these engines to pull fan excursions all over their rail network over a 5 year period, which the company referred to as "Iron Horse Rambles." When the 2102 returned to operation in 2022, the present-day Reading & Northern chose to revive that historic name for their high-end passenger excursions, which now run several times each summer, to the delight of not only the passengers, but the throngs of photographers who chase each trip in the hope of capturing shots just like this one.
Images from charters and regular operations depicting the Reading & Northern's two steam locomotives, the 4-8-4 Northern #2102 and the 4-6-2 Pacific #425.
