R&N Runs Steam Doubleheader

In part to celebrate the 75^th birthday of its owner Andy Muller, Jr., the Reading & Northern operated a steam doubleheader on Saturday featuring 4-8-4 No. 2102 and 4-6-2 No. 425.

The doubleheader was part of a scheduled Iron Horse Rambles excursion that already had been sold out.

Trains magazine reported that it was the first R&N steam doubleheader since 1988. The magazine said in a report on its website that Muller received applause from passengers as he walked through the train.

The 19-car excursion ran for 67 miles from the Reading Outer Station to Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania.

The train returned to Reading behind two SD50 locomotives that were adorned in a special livery to promote the railroad’s North Reading Fast Freight service.

At Nesquehoning Junction in Jim Thorpe, the steam locomotives were removed from the train and passengers were invited to visit their cabs.

R&N Planning Steam Double Header Aug. 13

Pennsylvania regional railroad Reading & Northern plans to run a steam locomotive double header on Aug. 13.

The Iron Horse Rambles train will feature 4-8-4 No. 2102 and 4-6-2 No. 425 and is already sold out.

R&N said it will be its first steam doubleheader since 1988 and the third of four scheduled steam excursions between Reading and Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, this year.

All three of the remaining trips are sold out. Some fall foliage excursions are expected to operate with steam power.

Filthy and Clean CNJ Units

All the times I photographed the Central of New Jersey heritage locomotive of Norfolk Southern, No. 1071 was always filthy.

That can be seen in the top two photographs, both of which were made at Unionville, Ohio, on November 25, 2017. The dirt is particularly evident on the head end.

The next two images I made in Painesville on March 8, 2020, on an outing with Marty Surdyk just prior to the statewide shutdown after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In these images, Lady Liberty is barely visible on the front side.

In looking through my collection, I found that back on June 21, 2008, I shot photos of clean CNJ F3s, actually ex Bangor & Aroostook, at Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, during a Reading & Northern 425 steam excursion.

Photo 5 is taken from the train upon arrival at Jim Thorpe while photo 6 was made during the layover.

Photographs by Edward Ribinskas

R&N Steam Locomotive to Run in August

Reading & Northern plans to use 4-6-2 No. 425 to power the first weekend of tourist train service to Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, by its Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway.

The trips will run on Aug. 14, 15 and 16.

Tickets are $17 for a standard coach seat and $20 for an open window coach. Children (ages 2 to 12) tickets for those accommodation s are $9 and $10.

Tickets can be purchased by calling 570-3258485. The trips are 70 minutes in duration.

Trains will depart at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Friday; and at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

No. 425 was built by Baldwin in 1982 for the Gulf, Mobile & Northern, and was purchased by the Reading & Northern in 1984. It began running for the R&N in 2007.

Steam Sunday: Good Times on the RBM&N

It’s a pleasant early summer day in Leetonia, Pennsylvania, as Reading Blue Mountain & Northern 4-6-2 No. 425 puts on a show on June 25, 1988.

The photographer was with fellow Akron Railroad Club member Paul Woodring on this day and reports, “those were good trips.”

The Pacific type locomotive was built in 1938 by Baldwin Locomotive Works.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Reading & Northern 425 to Pull Fall Trips

Tickets are on sale for a fall foliage excursions on the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway behind Reading & Northern 4-6-2 No. 425.

The trips will run Oct. 11-12 and operate from Port Clinton to Jim Thorpe, Pa. Tickets are $69 per person. The Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway is an affiliate of Reading & Northern and operates over former Central Railroad of New Jersey tracks.

The excursion railroad will begin its tenth season over Memorial Day Weekend, featuring a one-hour, 16-mile narrated excursions. The 425 was built by Baldwin for the Gulf, Mobile & Northern in 1928. It later became Gulf, Mobile & Ohio No. 580 and was retired in 1950.

It was sold to steam enthusiast Paulsen Spence. After he died in 1961, his family had all but four of his 30 steam locomotives scrappe

Purchased in 1962 by Malcolm Ottinger, the 425 operated on the Valley Forge Scenic Railroad of Kimberton, Pa.

In the 1970s, it was purchased by BrianWoodcock and others,and moved to the Wilmington & Western Railroad, where it never operated there.

In 1983, the 425 was sold to Andrew J. Muller Jr. to power tourist trains on the Blue Mountain & Reading Railroad.