Reading #2124
Originally built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works during the mid 1920s as a 2-8-0, the Reading Company rebuilt #2124 among thirty other engines, as a 4-8-4 Northern in January 1947.
Reading Northerns were heavy-duty freight locomotives assigned most often to coal traffic. Their wide fire-boxes burned culm, a wast product of anthracite coal. Together, the engine and tender weighed 405 tons and easily pulled 150 loaded coal hoppers.
Retired from freight service in 1956, #2124 was rescued from the scrap heap. During the early 1960s, at a time when steam had all but disappeared from America's railroads, #2424 pulled Reading trains filled with steam enthusiasts on the famous "Reading Rambles."
Marker is on Mechanic Street, on the left when traveling east.
Courtesy hmdb.org
