The Reading & Northern, a short line operating freight transport as well as excursions, owns nearly 400 miles of former Reading Railroad track from Reading up through the anthracite region in Pennsylvania. The lines run through the Schuylkill River Valley from Reading up to Port Clinton, which is the R&N headquarters and shops. From there there are multiple branches up through the anthracite region

The first Rambles were routed from the Reading Outer Station, the southern terminus of the RBM&N, up past Hamburg to Port Clinton where some additional passengers boarded, then traveled along the Little Schuylkill branch to Tamaqua. From there it continued through Tamaqua Tunnel, Barnesville, Hometown, Nesquehoning and arrived in Jim Thorpe. There we had over three hours to wander, find lunch, and see some of the historic town. There was actually time to take a diesel powered trip on the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway, another R&N operation through the very scenic Lehigh River Gorge.

For this group of excursions, the motive power was #2102, a former Reading Railroad Class T-1 steam locomotive. This 400 ton machine, a 4-8-4 "northern" type has returned to service after about six years and 2.4 million dollars of reconstruction and restoration. It had been out of service since the 1990s.

Perhaps the most personally exciting thing about these excursions is that Ye Olde Photographer rode some of the original Reading Railroad Iron Horse Rambles in the early 1960s, some behind this very locomotive. A few of those ran double-headed with two of these machines. One in YOP's memory used two locos and 22 coaches to carry about 1200 passengers. This new series is approaching that scale — there were 18 coaches on this run, although some of those were club and observation cars which carry fewer passengers than a straight coach. The trips have been selling out and there are literally hundreds of passengers on each.

Should you wish to check them out, YOP has some short videos taken with his recently acquired iPhone 13 Pro accessible on his website. This was his first experience with Premier Elements and video editing and YOP admits he is not Ken Burns! But they do give some idea — and have sound! There is also one of the May 28th ramble taken at ground level with the iPhone on a tripod that YOP is pleased with. (His left eardrum nearly popped out of his right ear as the long whistle blast passed by!)

On August 13th, we added three videos of trackside passes which were enhanced by running double-headed with the R&N's Pacific type, as well as some stills to this gallery.