The two F7s, built for Bessemer & Lake Erie in 1953, have been stored outdoors in New Jersey for many years, but CEO Andrew M. Muller Jr. assures Trains News Wire that they will be made operable. One wears New York, Ontario & Western gray-and-yellow, and the other carries a red, white, and black scheme, somewhat reminiscent of early Rock Island cab unit images. Muller says the two will be repainted in a Rock Island-type scheme, with the same colors – red, black, and white, which coincidentally are those that are used in R&N’s “Road of Anthracite” logo. He says that he will use the covered wagons to pull the railroad’s business trains.
The railroad recently purchased the pair of F units, as well as a Budd RDC-1, from the Southern Railroad of New Jersey.
The RDC is of New Haven heritage, and it will add seating capacity on trains with R&N’s two other Budd cars on planned service from a new “Outer Station” near Reading to Jim Thorpe, a popular tourist destination.
The 300-mile R&N uses scheduled trains to manage its ever-growing freight business, manages a busy excursion train affiliate, carries locally mined anthracite coal, is installing Centralized Traffic Control on its main lines, runs a Baldwin 4-6-2 steam locomotive, and is restoring a Reading 4-8-4 to service.
The E units might not have made out so well, but I don’t see what’s so sad about a pair of F7s getting a first class rebuild and returning to service in PA rather than rusting into oblivion in the Pine Barrens.
As Leo said, Mr. Muller wasn’t the ideal steward of those two pinstriped PRR E8A’s. It’s sad, but they were his to with as he saw fit.
What Happen to Pennsy E 8??
Sad to hear this after what happened with the pair of Pennsy E8’s down there.
As I recall, they were two of the five or so last Amtrak rebuilds that had HEP. They bought two of them, painted them in original colors, and a short time later disposed of them. One of them was an empty shell turned into a wedding chapel, the last I heard. At least the Conrail pair they bought live on in preserved condition after years of executive train use. The 5th was a donor for two Amtrak RS3M’s that got the 12-567BC’s.
Top notch operation once again! Fully lettered RBMN hoppers through Hunstville, Alabama this morning. What other roads can claim this pride and visability?!
One is running out in Missouri, and one is stuffed and mounted somewhere.