Great Big Boy shot...and you didn't even mention the two Reading FP7s in the background!

These two ex-RDG covered wagons, #902 and #903, have really made the rounds through eastern Pennsylvania. After retirement from SEPTA service in 1981, they, along with sister #900, were acquired by different preservation groups: the Reading Company Technical and Historical Society and the NRHS Chapters in Lancaster and Philadelphia, respectively.

The RCTHS unit, #900 sat in storage for years at Leesport, Pa. on the old PRR Schuykill Valley branch, then operated by the Blue Mountain & Reading; the two chapter-owned units, #902 and #903, were stored on a siding at Pocopson, Pa., southwest of West Chester on the former RDG Wilmington & Northern branch, then operated by the Octoraro RR, later the Brandywine Valley.

The 902 and 903 were eventually restored and operated on several excursions in the Philadelphia area, including several on the old RDG Perkiomen branch, which once served my hometown of Collegeville, Pa. One unit was subsequently acquired by the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania at Strasburg; both Fs spent time at the Museum there, and these are the ones now at Steamtown.

The RCTHS-owned unit, #900, has since moved up the line from Leesport to the group's new Reading Railroad Museum in Hamburg, Pa.