Reading No. 2124 locomotive on display at Steamtown National Historic Site

See the Train Collection web page for more locomotives at Steamtown National Historic Site.

Note: Numbers used in this article, such as 2-8-0, are known as Whyte Notation. This is a system to classify steam locomotives that was created by Frederick Whyte in 1900. These numbers describe the arrangements of wheels. Most locomotives only have three numbers, with the first being the number of non-powered wheels used to support the front of the engine, the second being the number of powered wheels, and the third being the number of non-powered rear wheels. For a steam locomotive with four numbers, the middle two are powered wheels.

The Reading No. 2124 locomotive at Steamtown National Historic Site was originally built for the Philadelphia and Reading Company by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1924 as an I-10sa class 2-8-0 Consolidation locomotive. It was rebuilt by the Reading Company as a T-1 class 4-8-4 Northern in 1947 for heavy-duty use pulling trains of anthracite coal. The engine was retired from freight duty in 1956 but kept by the Reading Company instead of being sold or scrapped.

From 1959 through 1961, the Reading Company used No. 2124 for passenger excursions it dubbed the Iron Horse Rambles that ran from Philadelphia to Shamokin. It was replaced by the No. 2102, another Reading rebuild of a 2-8-0 Baldwin engine (Reading rebuilt 30 such engines in total). The No. 2102 is still transporting passengers on Iron Horse Rambles after a six-year restoration that was completed in 2022. The excursion is operated by the Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad in Pennsylvania.

No. 2124 was purchased by Steamtown USA founder Nelson Blount in 1963 for his collection. It is no longer running, but it was cosmetically restored in 2019. It is one of only nine Reading Company locomotives still in existence.

Reading No. 2124 locomotive on display at Steamtown National Historic Site

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