The final excursion of the 1988 NRHS convention was planned to be a 420-mile round trip from Bound Brook, New Jersey to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The air conditioning for passenger cars required a massive amount of water, and trip organizers failed to accommodate these needs before the trip was to begin. This meant that the trip began with a stop to accommodate this need, and the excursion was hours late before going five miles.
Once the train started rolling, it pretty much made track speed (40 mph) to Temple, Pennsylvania for a servicing stop at the Blue Mountain & Reading. While at Temple, the organizers came to grips that the hopelessly late trip would arrive at Bound Brook well after midnight, and made the call to turn back at Reading. This created a dilemma for several dozen passengers who had chosen the one-way option and had Amtrak connections at Harrisburg to go home. Eventually trip officials organized a taxi caravan for them to make their connections, after a lot of heated discourse.
Here the “Readingburg” trip rolls west through Lyons, Pennsylvania, on Conrail’s East Penn line.
The Van Swearingen Brothers standarized freight power for their railroads with nearly identical 2-8-4 Berkshires. Two of these engines are still in excursion service.
