Thoughts on Rural Passenger Train Service & Chasing Reading 2102

Next time I play Monopoly, I'm putting on my monocle and correcting people's pronunciation of Reading Railroad.

Amtrak should conect the planned Allentown line to Reading then to Harrisburg, linking it with NYC and creating another connection to Philly in Reading. Possibly even a special express SEPTA line from Philly to Allentown? I really think the transit density from the NJ/NEC could continue into PA The infrastructure and the density of towns is really good.

Lost in yesterday for sure. It’s a shame we can’t travel our beautiful country without a car

That is a great idea about such a a rural passenger rail service. I've thought that myself when taking their highly popular RDC service from Reading North Station to Jim Thorpe on a few family vacations. My experience is they always provided excellent customer service such as when we were delayed by an hour by a tree on the track they let everybody have a free soft drink and snack from the cafe and comp tickets for the Lehigh Gorge that let me just by luck ride behind 425 in the semi-open air car. I think the demand for this is really there and Penn DOT already gives them grants in the millions to fix the track for freight a little more and you could have regular rural rail passenger service. It would do so much for these old towns that have such good bones with the kind of walkeable downtowns yet access to nature and open space that so many desire.

Hell yeah back to intercity steam baby

I was thinking exactly this about the Alaska Railroad. They have stations and serve a lot of places but outside of freight are set up almost exclusively for serving excursions and cruise ships. We wanted to book them once to travel between towns but the schedule and pricing because of that made it not really an option.

I’ve had similar thinking that R&N should run more passenger service. I’m with you Alan!

UP's steam program is one of their biggest PR assets, CPKS came close to match it with the Empress tour but Mexico accidents happened

I had the pleasure of riding this excursion, agree with you that the rdc's would be a great way of introducing daily passenger commutes

I’ve always really liked the idea of rural passenger rail. Many people who think that such services are unnecessary because folks would just drive might not realize that a significant portion of our population, including rural residents, do not have a car at hand or otherwise cannot drive, and the older rail infrastructure often includes stations at the heart of those smaller towns (many of which the railroads helped build), which along with speed could make rural trains more convenient to passengers than coach buses, which are left to the mercy of traffic and in many places stop at out-of-the-way stations.

If one is concerned that such services provided would yield little financial return, so does the Interstate Highway System (and at a much greater degree), and we rely on it all the same. Even then rural passenger rail is the one of few applications where I would think battery-powered locomotives or one or two DMUs would work well, as an alternative to locomotive-hauled trains which might be too inefficient. Maybe wires could be put up and the train becomes an interurban, however.

If the United States had a system of rural passenger trains connecting small towns and parklands, I’d certainly use it over my car, even if it was a little slower.

Congratulations for chasing this steam loco! Rail chases are fun indeed! 😊

Small reminder that there are generally two trains on hour between Wiesbaden and Koblenz. And yes, it's below wires.

PTC is another hurdle for mainline steam. Some organizations are installing/fundraising for it, but it is an additional major expense.
(ATSF #'s 2926 and 3751 are two mainline engines currently getting PTC)

Was that the unedited audio from the gorge shot!?!?! That thing was **BOOMING**!!!

Pural Rassenger Pail

Great shots, I’ve been meaning to take a trip out to Pennsylvania and see 2102

I'm saving this for a rainy day. Today might just be that day.

The problem in the center of this entire issue is Norfolk Southern Corp. and that is something you can’t ignore. While on the excursion even the conductors who were chatting with my mother had said NS is deathly afraid of Andy Mueller and his Reading & Northern because unlike Norfolk Southern’s “Scorch and Burn” business model that is Precision Scheduled Railroading; Mueller and the Reading & Northern have refused to adopt that model and have brought back a lot of customers that NS usually would drive away! R&N gets their goods to their customers on time and with a reasonable rate. It is why Norfolk Southern should just give up the Lehigh Line to R&N and if possible snatch the Sunbury Branch from Sunbury, PA to Binghamton, NY (and even the conductors echoed what everyone is saying about those two lines how NS is basically killing both lines).

According to his former Vice President, the late Jerry Jacobson, former owner of the Ohio Central RR, was all set to start commuter train service between Newark and Columbus, Ohio. Then the bureaucrats at ODOT said whoa, we've got to do studies and put out requests for proposals and other nonsense. Jerry literally had equipment lined up to start service in a couple of months. I think a lot of good ideas and proposals die in the red tape.

I was on that trip Saturday. The crew was outstanding. The best thing they did was have unlimited water on hand for anyone who wanted it for the entire trip, given the scorching temperatures that day. If Mr. Muller did want to run regular service, I think he has an operation capable of making it work, although speeds would have to be increased to make it competitive. I'm pretty sure we never got over 30-35 mph at any point, and that engine is capable of 70 mph.

yay liam

Totally agree with what you're saying about rural places only being accessible by car anymore, like just put a few request stops on these countryside lines or something! ha Cool video thanks for sharing though :]

Scranton to Buffalo to the lake shore can be rerouted earlier to make Chicago to NYC quicker

I got to experience a steam locomotive up close and person when I was hiking the Oregon Coast Trail last summer. There's a section near Tillamook where hiking on the RR tracks is vastly preferred over the other possible route (the narrow shoulder of US-101), and when I was doing so an Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad train pulled by a steam locomotive came by! It was so cool.

Reminds me a bit of the Class III INER in OH, IN, and MI. They host two steam programs and have started restoring another depot along the line to host bike and train excursions with NKP 765. RN is definitely on my list next time I'm in PA!

Every little town the size of parkesburg, Elizabethtown, etc deserves the service that those two just happen to get from being between Harrisburg and Philly

Tame impala slowed and reverb? I see you Alan fisher..... lovely railfanning tho

I still have yet to see Reading 2102, although I have seen NKP 765, and Pere Marquette 1225

In Maine, I hope that when the MEC 470 gets restored, they run it on mainline in Mains

Great footage! It was worth the effort.

Jim Thorpe is a fantastic place to visit, but parking is a nightmare. Here's how I would help fix it along with helping the rest of the region build.

New rail service on Amtrak: Harrisburg - Hershey - Reading - Lehigh Valley - New Jersey - NYC

Philadelphia - Norristown - Allentown - Scranton this rout would likely go east towards the Delaware water gap not over R&N's main line.

R&N could run trains starting in Allentown to Jim Thorpe and other stops in the rest of North Eastern PA and towards Reading. The idea of coming to see these eastern Pay towns and riding the train to do it could have a self reinforcing effect. If nothing else, it might help get some of the weekend day tripper cars off the road and out of street parking.

Thankfully not being a class 1 they should be able to run upto 12 passenger trains (in total so 6RT) on a route before they need PTC.

This is a primary a freight railroad with weekend trips to Jim Thorpe

Outro song ? ^^

I've been saying this a lot but I really think that the US should get a successor to the Budd RDC. Cheap, reliable service for rural/less busy lines. See Victoria (Australia)'s V/Line system for example

The thing is, subsidies mean it isn't self supporting, that means it isnt economical and tour taking someone else tax dollar to pay for another person's ticket.... That being said, we waste so many tax dollars, I'd rather see us develop passenger rail again and turn it over time to private companies. Any subsidies would need to scale so that it pushes companies to find a balance where a line could be independent.

Secondly, Private Companies are better than public companies, because you can reason with a single owner and develop a long term plan, where stock owners and board members have to focus on profitablity.

Id love more train service, maybe we would have ore today if the government had deregulated the railroads after WW2 rather than in the 80s.

Sounds like a great day of railfaning!!

Imagine if 2012 was your pleasure AND your commute. What a life! But steam was always being attacked not because it was messy but because it was beautiful. The decision to convert 2100 to oil was an act of hatred made by people who have too illegitimate money.

Philly once had a relatively good regional rail service with local services provided by the Reading and Pennsylvania railroads. In the early 80's it was decided to tie the two separate systems together with the Center City Tunnel Connection. This allowed through running between the former Readings lines and those of the former Pennsy. It was a commendable plan, but with one one very unfortunate consequence. Being in a tunnel, the connection was not able to be used by diesel powered trains. Rather than run diesel shuttle trains to connect with trains on the electrified lines SEPTA eliminated all service outside the electric zone. This major retrenchment happened almost 40 years ago and ended service to Reading and Pottsville, among other places. Today, if there were any will to do so, through diesel/electric trains with battery back up should be able to use the tunnel without a problem. It would be nice if at least a pilot project could be started without the need for endless studies. One can dream I suppose.

I forever love the fact that US steam locmotives (even smaller ones) dwarf the UK ones...
Hi from the wet rock that is the UK!

Great video man! Hopefully someday I'll be running out to Scranton to take a break from the corridor lol

come to the UK! we have mainline steam coming out of our ears!

theres even the £15 shakespeare express!

also as someone that uses our rural rail network (trains are usually every hour) a fair bit, there's nothing quite like combining bike & train.

(also we need the tourism money desperately)

The biggest problem that I can see is that R&N doesn't have any downtown trackage in Reading, and Amtrak will presumably use the long proposed combination of Franklin Street in downtown and Wyomissing on the west side (for the outlet shops there), which is nowhere close to any R&N trackage. The R&N's "Outer Station" is 3.81 track miles (roughly) from Franklin Street and about 4 miles from the probable site of the Wyomissing stop. The latter has the advantage of using (I think) lower-priority traffic, but misses out on the critical point of serving DOWNTOWN Reading. Here's hoping for some serious strong-arming on the part of Amtrak.

Owning and driving a car is becoming too costly for a greater and greater number of people. Public transportation might make a return.

It all comes down to one simple thing. Taxes. And Americans constantly complain about them even though they are taxed much less than other OECD citizens.

Seeing the 2102 for the first time in October 2022 was a life-changing experience for me. I loved trains as a kid and I love transit as an adult but that locomotive is damn near a religious experience and I chase it every single time I get the opportunity now and had the privilege of riding an Iron Horse Ramble excursion from Reading to Jim Thorpe back in May. I've seen about ten different steam engines run and nothing comes close. Also the RBMN is head and shoulders above any other railroad I've ever dealt with, I can't say enough positive things about them.

The intro nails it. Riding behind that thing while it fought up the hill from Jim Thorpe to Nesquehoning was the closest to a spiritual experience I've ever had.

Awesome footage - my hometown neck of the woods! This video reminded me how much I take for granted how beautiful it can be. As a New Yorker now, I would do almost anything to be able to take a train back to the Poconos to visit family and friends rather than do the forsaken drive.

As for steam engines, you truly haven't lived until you've experienced an "Appalachian facial" 😜

A cool little rail line

Oh fun fact not that you care but last year I was it last year not it was the last Christmas event for last year's Christmas event that I rode behind a Blue mountain riding a Northern passenger excursion not the one in Jim thorp but the other one they have the journals and some of the cars still that I spoke to some of the guys up there they state that there are five pieces of coaches that potentially still have journals but the rest of the equipment has been timkened which means most of the equipment is timken and not journal boxes there's your pointless fact