Re: 2100 to move
Author: Tom McCann
Date: 01-05-2010 - 17:58
I first saw the 2100 leading an Iron Horse Ramble through my hometown of Collegeville, Pa. in 1960. It has, without saying, traveled a lot since then. Personally, the trip I would like to see it take is back to Pennsylvania.
The Reading, Blue Mountain & Northern already has a T1 on the property (#2102). I suspect the Reading Technical & Historical Society would have first dibs on her, especially since it's stored at the RBMN Port Clinton, Pa. shops, just a few miles north of the RCT&HS museum site in Hamburg.
I think a better home for the 2100 is the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania at Strasburg. The museum has many ex-PRR steamers, including one of just two surviving K4 Pacifics, and even an ex-Nickel Plate Berkshire. However, it has just two ex-Reading steam locomotives, both of them switchers (one of these is a Camelback).
If the RMPA could acquire the 2100, they could at least restore it to its original RDG livery and get rid of that ridiculous "Ferroequus" name off the tender.
Incidentally, the RBMN has a second 4-8-4 stored at Port Clinton, former C&O "Greenbrier" #614. It also has a former Milwaukee Road "Super Dome" in its business car fleet.