Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Well, when you find out Union Pacific 4014 — the only operational "Big Boy" 4-8-8-4 articulated steam locomotive — is visiting your railfan stomping grounds as part of the Nation's 250th Celebration, you do your best to find some spots to take in the once in a lifetime opportunity.
It's surreal to me this passed within a couple miles of my childhood home and school, and ran alongside Eastern Pennsylvania's famous Reading & Northern 2102 4-8-4 steam engine. Enjoy!
Well, when you find out Union Pacific 4014 — the only operational "Big Boy" 4-8-8-4 articulated steam locomotive — is visiting your railfan stomping grounds as part of the Nation's 250th Celebration, you do your best to find some spots to take in the once in a lifetime opportunity.
It's surreal to me this passed within a couple miles of my childhood home and school, and ran alongside Eastern Pennsylvania's famous Reading & Northern 2102 4-8-4 steam engine. Enjoy!
![Reading & Northern on the PRR Schuylkill Branch [4K]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/vvYhj72_ilk/mqdefault.jpg "Reading & Northern on the PRR Schuylkill Branch [4K]
On March 27, 2015, a train of 100 empty crude oil tank cars are bound for storage on the former Pennsylvania Railroad Schuylkill Branch between Reading and Hamburg, Pennsylvania. This was the first move of many made to store 100s of empty tank cars across the Reading & Northern system. With declining prices and demand for oil, the once busy method of shipping crude by rail between 2012-2014 has significantly dwindled. Many of these rail cars were built between 2011-2014 and have seen very few mileage, but with a lack of demand for crude by rail, thousands of these tank cars sit idle across the country, for how long? Who knows...
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The power for the train, symbol PNTE (Port Clinton - Temple) had power on both end of the trains, with RBMN SD50M 5049 and GP39RN 2530 pulling the train down from Port Clinton to the Norfolk Southern interchange and BELT (Belt Line Junction) just north of the city of Reading, and RBMN SW8M 802 on the rear for the shove north toward Hamburg, which is the present day terminus of the branch and home to the Reading Company Technical & Historical Society museum and preserved railroad equipment, some of which you see scattered along the branch in this video.
The PRR Schuylkill Branch used to be a line that paralleled the Reading Railroad from Philadelphia to Delano Junction, but is now split into segments with the abandonment of most of the line. This segment runs between Laurel Junction in Temple, PA to Hamburg, PA. This section of track has not seen revenue service in many decades, and the days of the Blue Mountain & Reading steam have come and gone two decades ago. Therefore, seeing a train on the PRR side of the Schuylkill River is incredibly rare, especially on the full extent of the branch.
Hopper cars had been stored on this line in the past, but rarely north of GLEN, which is where the switch to the Glen-Gery Brick Plant and old Pennsylvania Railroad Signal bridge sit derelict. This was the first of such rare mileage empty oil can moves made, and was perhaps the first revenue freight train to run above Shoemakersville in over two decades!
Thanks for watching!")
