Reading Blue Mountain & Northern Railroad steam locomotive 2102 sits outside the engine house as Reading and Northern SW8M 803 waits on the turntable to pull it onto the main at Port Clinton, Pennsylvania on October 5th, 2024, for the first day of the year of 2102 pulling Fall Foliage Excursions.
From what I find on the web: Reading and Northern locomotive 803 is an EMD SW-8m model. It was built in September 1951 with builder number 14495. It was previously owned by Conrail (CR) as 8684 and originally by Lehigh Valley (LV) as 270.
According to their website: The Reading Company T-1 class #2102 was built in the Reading’s own locomotive shops in 1945. With drivers of 70” diameter, it weighs 404 tons, and its tender holds up to 26 tons of coal, and up to 19,000 gallons of water. After the Reading Steam era was over, the Reading Company used 2102 for the Reading Rambles on several different excursions. The 2102 has had many different owners since it was retired by the Reading Railroad. It is one of only four to survive. The other remaining locomotives are the 2100, 2101, and 2124.
The Blue Mountain and Reading Railroad purchased the 2102 in 1987, and it ran on the Temple to South Hamburg line into the early 1990’s. Once the Blue Mountain and Reading Railroad became the Reading Blue Mountain & Northern, the 2102 ran over Reading & Northern’s rails for a short time before it was removed from service in the early 1990’s.
In 2022, steam locomotive 2102 reentered service on the Reading & Northern. The locomotive has been used actively to pull both passenger excursions and revenue freight trains.
Tech Info: Nikon D810, RAW, Nikon 24-70 @ 24mm, 2.5 seconds, f/5.6, ISO 200.
