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| PHOTOS: Reading Switcher Returns Part 1 (1540785) | |||
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PHOTOS: Reading Switcher Returns Part 1 |
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Posted by kp5308 on Sat Mar 14 18:14:19 2020 A handshake agreement made 20 years ago was fulfilled when an SW1200 made a trip from Stockton CA to Hamburg PA. Back in 2000 Reading Tech Archivist Rick Bates & David Arganbright (now VP for Government Affairs for OmniTrax) had a discussion on various topics. Somewhere in that conversation David told Rick that if the opportunity presented itself he would obtain a Reading locomotive for donation to the Society. On February 15th ex-Reading SW1200 #2719 left the Stockton Terminal and Eastern via BNSF bound for Chicago and interchange with NS. It passed Galesburg IL on the 24th & got to Elkhart IN the next day. NS didn't move it for some reason until March 1st. The movement drew a bit of a following on the journey east. This is a shot from the Berea OH webcam on the 2nd: The little EMD was dropped off at Allentown on March 5 and went home on H68 to Reading Yard for pick up by Reading and Northern and final movement to the Museum. By the time H68 left Allentown the sun was long gone. I waited at Alburtis until we lost any chance of shooting the move. A wonderful sunset shot was all I got:  Next morning it was sitting in front of the Spring St. Yard office:  Saturday the 7th R&N picked up the engine & brought it to Temple. The plan was to take it to Hamburg once the line was cleared for movement so Duane, Pat & I jumped in the R&N Hi-rail at Hamburg to do an inspection of the railroad. Surprisingly only one tree had to be removed. The line has no traffic except the Museum between Leesport & Hamburg:  Past the Ex-Pennsy station at Shoemakersville:  A sinkhole below the track above Leesport cancelled our plan to move the engine. Now back on active track we rolled down to Cambridge Tube and set off to rubber the last mile to Temple:  The R&N crew waited for us at Temple before putting #678 on the siding in front of the station:  Up the branch they go with the gondola & hopper:  We proceeded to inspect our newest arrival. All batteries were there & appeared well kept. All the series wiring was missing:  We found EMD applied Reading yellow on the inside of the front sandbox lid. The 5 SW1200s were the first switchers delivered in green and yellow. They all left LaGrange in 1963  Some Conrail blue shows through on the walkway. The engine became CR #9319 in 1976. Other owners included Pacific Harbor Lines and the Louisville and Indiana. It stayed blue on the STE till at least 2004:  The waybill was attached to the rear door glass inside the cab:  Unfortunately a Federal court decision prohibited an operational locomotive donation. In order for the donation to happen the prime mover had to be disabled per the court order. This was a long process due to the historical preservation aspect of the transaction despite the motor not being original! A single hole was drilled in the block and identified as non operational:  The sticker identifies the court case (see section P option 2) along with the ID of the locomotive. An annual report must be submitted to the EPA to verify that the diesel has not been started:  The engine sat in Temple until we picked it up this morning. I'll post shots of that move as time allows |
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