Dashing through the snow. At track speed, a Reading & Northern express passenger train races south toward Glen Onoko, through a snow storm in the Lehigh River Gorge.
Photographer's Note: The combination of this location, the low cloud deck and this particular locomotive combined to produce a set of sounds like I've never heard from a steam engine before. At track speed of approximately 40 mph, the stack beats are very close together. In combination with the echoes off the canyon walls, the result is not a chugging sound, but a steady, LOUD roar. About the only thing I could compare it to would be the din of half a dozen KC-135A models, executing MITO takeoffs with water injection....back in the old SAC days. She might be referred to as a "Light Pacific", but the Reading & Northern 425 is without a doubt, the loudest steam engine I have ever seen in-person.
Images from charters and regular operations depicting the Reading & Northern's two steam locomotives, the 4-8-4 Northern #2102 and the 4-6-2 Pacific #425.
