Reading & Northern

Since Early September Is Already Here And With The Fall Season Not Too Far, The Iron Horse Ramble Excursions Must Come To An End For The Year With Reading Blue Mountain & Northern Steam Locomotive #425.

The Last Iron Horse Excursion Has Consisted 17 Passenger Cars Which Is Not Sound Like A Long Train, But For A Little Steam Locomotive Like #425, It Still Is Too Long To Pull, Especially On Steep Grades Including The Ones Through Tamaqua And Hometown, So Two Diesel Locomotives Are Put Behind #425 To Help Her Pull The Train All The Way From Reading Outer Station To Jim Thorpe, Pa.

The Blue Pacific Put On A Spectacular Show On The Last Iron Horse Excursion of The Year As She Thunders Through Towns And Tough Terran And The Two Diesel Locomotives Behind #425 Helped Her Regularly And Constantly Making #425 Run More Faster Than Usual.

#425 Will Be Tasked To Run A Few Fall Foliage Trips Or Autumn Leaf Excursions Throughout October And Run A Couple of Santa Express Trains In December This Year.

Information About #425: Built By The Baldwin Locomotive Works On January 12, 1928, #425 Worked On The Gulf Mobile And Northern Railroad Until Being Retired In 1950. Then In The 1980’s, The #425 Was Sold The Blue Mountain And Reading Railroad And Even Double-headed With Reading #2102. In 1992, #425 Was Repainted Into A Blue Paint Scheme And Continued Running Excursions Until 1996 As The Reading Blue Mountain And Northern Railroad Decided To Have Steam Operations Take A Break From 1997 To 2008. On December 29, 2007, #425 Was Restored And Moved Under Her Own Steam For The First Time In The 21st Century. Another Test Run Was Done On May 10, 2008 Where #425 Returned With The Headlight Being In The Center of Her Face And The Bell Moved To Where The Old Headlight Use To Be. After The Test Run, #425 Did Her First Excursion From Port Clinton To Jim Thorpe And Return On June 21, 2008. It Hauled Excursions Before It Went In Storage For Some Repairs From 2011 To 2012. The Repairs Were Finished In 2013 And #425 Continued To Hauls More Excursions From Port Clinton To Jim Thorpe And Return. Then In 2015, #425 Was Repainted In Dark Blue With Black Wheels And Meet Up With Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 Locomotive #765. In 2022, #425 Did Her Last Runs As Her FRA Mandated 1472 Day Inspection And Overhaul Hit. Since The Real #425 Is Already Down For Her Inspection, We Really Don’t Know How Long It Will Take, But The N Scale Model of #425 Will Keep Running And I Will Keep Posting More Videos of It For The Real #425 Until Whenever It Will Come Back From It’s Inspection.

Please Come Back Soon #425, The Reading Blue Mountain And Northern Railroad Won’t Be The Same Without You. 🚂💙

The Real Reading & Northern #425 Is Still Going Under Her 1472 Rebuild, But I’ve Heard That They Are Hoping To Have Her Return Later This Year.