Reading & Northern Steam: Back from the Dead!
OUT OF SERVICE SINCE 2011, Reading & Northern’s former Gulf, Mobile & Northern 4-6-2 No. 425 returned to service on August 30, 2013, as it moved from the railroad’s Port Clinton, Penn., shop to Scran- ton for display at Steamtown’s Railfest event on August 31 and Septem- ber 1. (Before that, it also made a break-in run on August 22.) Then on Labor Day, September 2, it handled a Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway ex-
cursion out of Jim Thorpe, shown here on former Jersey Central track- age crossing the Lehigh River at Nesquehoning Junction. Quite a bit of work has been done on the locomotive; it has a new,
roller bearing lead truck, new tires and roller bearings on the trailing truck, new piston rings, lubricators, blower, and air piping. Work was also done on the smokebox and staybolts.
Amtrak
TRACKWORK STARTS IN MICHIGAN: On September 9, 2013, Amtrak began the first phase of work to upgrade the former Norfolk Southern route used by Wolverine Service trains between Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, and Dearborn, Mich. On December 9, 2012, the Michigan Department of Transportation pur- chased the 135 miles of track from NS and turned responsibility for maintenance over to Amtrak on February 16, 2013, clearing the way for improvements that will eventually see the route upgraded to 110 m.p.h. standards. The initial work was to take place east of Jackson through September 26 on Mondays through Thursdays, with the tracks clear for regular service on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. 30 miles of track are expected to be upgraded with the installation of 130,000 crossties by the end of this year’s construction season. After all 135 miles have been upgrad- ed, trip times will be trimmed by two hours from the current 6.5 hour schedule between Chicago and Detroit.
Norfolk Southern Office Car Special Plies the Corridor
A NORFOLK SOUTHERN OFFICE CAR SPECIAL ran from Newark, N.J., to Harrisburg, Penn., on August 21; here it’s passing through Trenton, N.J. The train left the NEC at CP Bell just north of Wilmington, Del., and used the NS Shellpot Secondary through Elsmere Yard to CP Ragan, where it got back onto Amtrak rails for a run to Washington, D.C. The special con- tinued through Washington over former Southern rails to Manassas, Va., then onto the B-Line to Front Royal, and then to Harrisburg via Hagerstown, Md.
22 OCTOBER 2013 •
RAILFAN.COM
NOVEMBER EXCURSIONS SOLD OUT: Amtrak will run Autumn Express rare- mileage circle trips out of Philadelphia on No- vember 2 and 3. The trains will leave 30th Street Station at 9:00 a.m. and run over the Northeast Corridor to Perryville, Md., then up the Norfolk Southern Port Road Branch and across the Shocks Mills Bridge to Enola Yard.
MITCH GOLDMAN
NICK HOVEY
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