Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
On Saturday, June 13th 2026, the Pocono Mountains became the background noise to that familiar deep whistle of a Union Pacific "4000 Class" 4-8-8-4 type steam locomotive, known as the "Big Boy". Running southbound out of Pittston, Pennsylvania on the former Lehigh Valley Railroad, the locomotive keeps pace with a locomotive that now calls this territory its home rails, Reading & Northern "T-1" class #2102, a former Reading Railroad 4-8-4 type steam locomotive.
Just south of the Oak Street crossing south of Pittston, PA, we catch the two trains as they make their way south towards the Lehigh Gorge state park. Whoever would have thought that the world's largest operating steam locomotive, would be operating under steam, under its own power over this stretch of railroad in the 21st Century? What was once a running joke, turned into a reality.
On Saturday, June 13th 2026, the Pocono Mountains became the background noise to that familiar deep whistle of a Union Pacific "4000 Class" 4-8-8-4 type steam locomotive, known as the "Big Boy". Running southbound out of Pittston, Pennsylvania on the former Lehigh Valley Railroad, the locomotive keeps pace with a locomotive that now calls this territory its home rails, Reading & Northern "T-1" class #2102, a former Reading Railroad 4-8-4 type steam locomotive.
Just south of the Oak Street crossing south of Pittston, PA, we catch the two trains as they make their way south towards the Lehigh Gorge state park. Whoever would have thought that the world's largest operating steam locomotive, would be operating under steam, under its own power over this stretch of railroad in the 21st Century? What was once a running joke, turned into a reality.
