A former Pennsylvania Railroad 0-6-0 switch engine is being steamed up is pulling excursions over the Williams Grove Railroad in Pennsylvania in relative obscurity.
The engine operates over a mile of track about 10 miles south of Harrisburg. It is the only operating ex-Pennsy steam locomotive currently in operation.
No. 643 was built in June 1901 at the Juniata Shops in Altoona, Pennsylvania, as one of 133 class B4/B4a engines built in Altoona or by Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia between 1892 and 1904.
The excursions include two former Everett Railroad open cars and a steel PRR Class N5 cabin car.
The excursions are sponsored by the Williams Grove Historical Steam Engine Association.
A report on the website of Railfan and Railroad magazine indicated the 643 is equipped with a three-chime PRR passenger whistle, which it would not have had during it working life.
The excursions are 25 minutes and fares are $7.
The current west end of track ends alongside the former Reading Company Lurgan Branch, now part of Norfolk Southern’s New Jersey-to-Atlanta Crescent Corridor.
The excursions pause next to the NS tracks in hopes of seeing an NS train pass by.
No. 643 spent four decades of its working life at Central Iron & Steel Company of Harrisburg (later, Phoenix Iron & Steel).
The 643, which operated as No. 5 at the steel mill, was found inside a building when the mill was dismantled in 1961.
The Williams Grove group purchased it and began restoring it to operating condition.
Williams Grove trains run intermittently with certain exceptions during the year. The schedule can be found at https://www.wghsea.org/