Reading Co. Photo Gallery - Steam
Unfortunately, not too many Reading steam locomotives were saved, although four T-1 Northerns (Nos. 2100, 2101, 2102, and 2124) are very well known. The following photos offer some glimpses of Reading steam locomotives in their glory days. Feel free to help your webmaster (webmaster@readingrailroad.org) if you can, by providing any additional info regarding locations, dates, classes, etc.
Reading class A-4b Camelback (0-4-0) #1248, location and date unknown. One example of this type (and the only Reading Camelback) has been preserved at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. (photo: RCT&HS Archives)
Heavy coal train getting underway from Shamokin in 1913 eastbound for Mahanoy Plane where its cars would be lifted over Broad Mountain. The last engine in this triple-headed consist of pushers was probably added on when the original pair could not move the train. Usually the wooden caboose was hung on the very end because of the danger of it being crushed by one of the powerful Consolidations in the event suddenly stopped. (caption info and photo courtesy The Reading Railroad: History of a Coal Age Empire by James L. Holten)
Reading class N-1sb Mallet (2-8-8-2) #1821, Reading, PA, date unknown. (photo courtesy North East Rails)
Reading class M-1sa Mikado (2-8-2) #1710 at Bridgeport, PA, 1947. (photo courtesy Howard Davis, Bud Laws Collection)
Arriving from Philadelphia, northbound passenger train fronted by Camelback (4-6-0) #624? approaches Reading’s Bethlehem station, possibly late 1930’s to early 1940s. Signal mast and track still remain to serve the PBNE, however station platform is long gone. (photo courtesy V.G. Aylward Collection, caption info courtesy Glenn Kaiser)
Reading class I-10sa Consolidation (2-8-0) #2010, in a builder’s 1940 Philadelphia. (photo courtesy Harold Volrath)
The most famous of the Reading’s streamlined Pacifics, indeed probably the best known Reading steam passenger locomotives of all time, were the two “Crusader” engines as represented by this undated photo of #117 at Reading Terminal. In a sense, the “Crusader” Pacifics symbolized the Reading’s approach to the railroad business, always striving to keep up to date with the latest technology, yet also finding ways to re-use older, yet still perfectly serviceable equipment. (photo: RCT&HS Archives)
Reading class T-1 Northern (4-8-4) #2113. We’re not quite sure of this photo’s location, it could either be on the PRR just north of Enola Yard, when in 1956, the power short PRR leased 10? RDG T-1’s or possibly a transfer run from Rutherford? (photo: RCT&HS Archives, caption info courtesy Jeff Smith, RCT&HS Member)
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