UP 4014 on Reading Rails In Philadelphia

Posted on July 4, 2026 by George Losse

The last leg of the cross country trip for UP 4014 was on July 3, from Abrams yard in King of Prussia to the Navy Yard in Philadelphia. I scouted a bunch of possible locations and chose The Laurel Hill East cemetery in East Falls as my location. There was wild speculation that they would turn the train at East Falls Junction and back the train through Philadelphia.

I arrived at just after 7 am in the morning, when they open to the public. There was a crew chaining the gate. At first I thought they were closing and quickly looked for another location. But returned and parked on the street. Since I was going to have to walk in, the big camera needed to stay on the car.

There was a small crowd compared to the previous day’s crowds, but it kept growing as we got closer to the time for the UP 4014 to arrive. We all thought it was going to come out onto the stone bridge and then back onto the Steel bridge. There was a NS Light engine move which gave an indication of the light we were going to have.

As the UP 4014 started to move into the junction, you could see that it was on the track headed into towards the city not towards the bridge. The crowd panicked, what if we all were wrong and it wasn’t going to back into Philadelphia or what if it was going to turn at a different junction? Easily a third to half of the crowd gathered at the cemetery and on Kelly Drive scattered, thinking we guessed wrong.

I honestly thought this was all I was going to see of the locomotive that day. I wasn’t that worried because I had done well in my first couple of times seeing it. I was just disappointed, I thought this was a cool location and a recognizable Philadelphia scene. I also knew I wasn’t going to be able to get to a different location and it not be three or four people deep.

I stayed just in case it was still going to turn on the wye at East Falls, but the train had to enter the wye from a different direction. It did.

If they had entered the wye from the direction we originally thought, it would have been nice light on the front of the locomotive. It turned out that we still had great light on the scene.

My only regret that day I had just after the train passed, was leaving the 4×10 camera in the car. The walk back to the car in 100+ degree heat made me not regret that decision.

UP 4014 on Reading Rails

Posted on July 2, 2026 by George Losse

I was able to see the UP 4014 Big Boy as it made its way from Jim Thorpe to King of Prussia, Pa today. I wasn’t sure if the combination of the crowds and the heat were going to be too much, but I’m glad I went to see it in action.

The nice part of the run from Jim Thorpe to Reading was that the Reading Blue Mountain & Northern Railroad was running an excursion on the line which proceeded the Big Boy by a few minutes in each location. They had two diesels pulling their excursion painted in their Semi Quincentennial paint schemes. This turned into a nice warning bell that the Big Boy was about to arrive.

Yes, the crowds were crazy, not your “normal” railfans either. These were regular people for the most part. They often got too close to the rails for a good image of the locomotive, but they wanted to be there and enjoy it just the same.

The other thing to deal with was the heat. There was a police officer near me while I was downtown. I overheard that a couple of people were having heat related issues just before the Big Boy arrived.

The UP 4014 in Tamaqua, PA pulled into the station and stopped for about fifteen minutes. I was able to move into the crowd to get a shot of it in front of the station.

I set up to and made the following image as it crossed West Broad Street in Tamaqua.

After a warm walk back to my car, I headed to my next location. I set up at Molino.

Between the two trains. I repositioned to the shade-side of the tracks to include the small station on the left.

Next. I headed to Leesport, Pa but I wasn’t able to park close enough to walk in the heat. SO I moved on to the next location. This viaduct is on the West side of Reading.

I was headed home at this point. I was happy with what I saw over the day. Then I was coming down 422 into Stowe and realized I was ahead of the train again. So I stopped and photographed it.

Throughout the day, two things amazed me. The crowds that were coming out at every location and the heat. I walked into each location with a bottle of water in hand and my cooler was a very welcome sight every time I returned to the car.

A Visitor From Out West – At Steamtown

Posted on June 29, 2026 by George Losse

In case you have been under a rock somewhere this Spring, we have a visitor from out west that came and ride some East Coast rails. The UP Big Boy 4014 is making a 250th Celebration run to be in Philadelphia for July 4, our nation’s 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

It has been in Steamtown for the last couple of weeks after running some wild excursions between Jim Thorpe and Scranton. I didn’t get the chance to see those excursions, they were well attended. I really didn’t want to be in that mass of humanity and craziness.

When UP 4014 first arrived in Steamtown, they parked the locomotive staggered from her sister unit UP 4012. I guess they want to have a view of both sides of the 4014. I didn’t like how they looked so I passed on going up to see it. This past weekend they moved the 4012 up to be side by side with her sister. That I wanted to see.

It turned out We had a doctor’s appointment this morning and I was able to head up to Steamtown afterwards. I couldn’t get there until late afternoon, but I knew the light would be good then since I had photographed the RDG FP7 and RDG T-1 in that location a couple of years earlier.

I am really amazed by the crowds that this locomotive has drawn. There are posts all over social media showing it passing through towns all across America and there are always large crowds out to see it pass through. People waiting hours, sometimes for a 30 second moment when it passes through their town.

Another reason I wanted to go to Steamtown was to get a chance to shoot the locomotives together with my other passion in life, my big cameras. In this case my K.B. Canham 4×10 and 5×7 cameras. Now I just have to process the film. I’ll share those images in a later post.

A Day At The Car Shops 1951

Posted on February 5, 2022 by George Losse

There was a link shared this morning on the Steam Era Freight Car Board to a video from 1951 of the Merchant Dispatch Car Shops in East Rochester, NY. I’ve seen this video a few years ago, but it is still enjoyable for any fans of freight cars.

The video documents the work of building freight cars in the early 1950’s. It goes all the way from stamping sheet metal for car sides and ends to the final painting of the cars being built.

Video Link: A Day At The Car Shops 1951

Below are a few screen shoots from the video. It’s a little long but worth it.

Center for Railroad Photography and Art

Posted on December 12, 2021 by George Losse

This morning I was checking my email and looking at the few Facebook Groups I follow. I found an image embedded in a post on the of the Anthracite Railroads Historical Society. The photo that was embedded was part of a discussion about a location of of a different image.

But when I followed the link, I found a wonderful webpage.

The Center for Railroad Photography and Art has a page of 100 images of the Reading Railroad taken by Donald W. Furler. The images cover many different locations on the Reading Railroad from the early 1940’s into the mid-1950’s. A number of the images have appeared in print before in different publications.

Take a look, this is not your typical railman photography. I enjoyed exploring the page this morning. I hope other Reading fans will also.

Something Is Just Not Right

Posted on December 19, 2020 by George Losse

Ever feel like something just isn’t right?
This image sums up this whole year.

I saw this section of track on the old Camden and Amboy in Cranberry, NJ last year. It appears they took out a turnout on the branch, but they didn’t replace it with anything. There is also a lot fresh ballast for what could be thought of as an abandoned section of railroad.

Kind of reminds you of a model railroad before someone installs a new turnout. But model railroaders usually ballast after they install the turnout.

On a positive note, I’ve been decorating some hopper cars recently. I’ll try to post some progress images in a few days.

Have I ever mentioned that I have a love-hate relationship with dry transfers. Maybe if they were a little fresher, they would work better. That’s the trouble with manufacturers going out of business, you can’t buy new products from them anymore. When the transfers work, they are great. When they act up, they can really get under your skin.

I also have to finish up a number of posts that are sitting here half finished. Makes this site almost feel like another form of model building, too many projects half finished in a box.

Stoney Brook Bridge in Hopewell, NJ

Posted on December 1, 2018 by George Losse

Yesterday was a cold wet rainy day, but I was off from work and wanted to be on the road seeing something. I took the morning to explore a little more on the Reading’s line through New Jersey.

I took some time to explore this four track bridge which spans Stony Brook and Pennington-Hopewell Road. It has three arches over the brook and a steel girder/concrete through span over the road.

This is located between Pennington and Hopewell, NJ. The bridge is still used today, but the line no longer supports four tracks worth of traffic, only a single track remains today.

Also visible on under the bridge it appears that the span was two tracks at one time and widened with tracks on either side of the original abutment which was in the center.

Not Much Going On

Posted on February 5, 2016 by George Losse

Not much new going on.

Here is a shot from yesterday at one of my favorite lunchtime spots, the West Trenton station. This was the second freight to pass while I was there during my lunch-hour, the first was a North-bound train with a bunch of UPS trailers on it. There was one more South-bound train passing before I left. I’m not that into the modern look but they are still trains.

Not much has happened with the layout recently. The good news was I have been going into the basement 4 or 5 time a week since last Summer… just not to work on the layout. As I said to my brother this past week, I moved my film processor into the basement last Summer and have been processing a ton of film since.

I hope to have some new stuff to talk about soon as I have a couple of projects lined up after the film processing gets caught up.

Midwest Railway Preservation Society

Posted on November 3, 2015 by George Losse

On Friday we drove out to Cleveland for the O Scale Show. After setting up our table we decided to take advantage of the tour that Sam Shumaker had added to the show.

In the afternoon we went over to the Midwest Railway Preservation Society to see their operation. They are set up in an old B&O Roundhouse in Cleveland. One of the stalls was occupied with the Reading T-1 2100. The MRPS is renting the stall space to the group that is restoring her.

We surprised them a little when we showed up, but we were treated to a tour of the round house and the grounds outside. Turned into a very nice visit.

More Images from My visit to the Coal Regions

Posted on February 21, 2015 by George Losse

Tamaqua, PA. Looks to date from the early 60’s but still very neat.

Here are some more images from my last trip into the coal regions.

Close up of the car wash sing.

The right end of the of the car wash.

They view of where the Mallet shed was located in Tamaqua. The gas station that was across the street from it is still there. On the left of the image.