Reading Steam Locomotives: History, Roster & Photos

Published: September 24, 2026

Reading steam was built around a firebox wide enough to burn culm, the fine waste left after anthracite was cleaned and graded. John E. Wootten, general manager of the Philadelphia & Reading, introduced that shallow grate in 1877. The railroad was still specifying it in the 1940s, on 4-8-4s rebuilt from Consolidation boilers. The shops at Reading, Pennsylvania, turned out well over 600 locomotives between 1845 and 1948. The last of them were ten Pacifics.

George H. Drury, in Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, is the post-1900 class grid below. A small letter after the class number marked a minor change in cylinders or drivers. An “s” between the number and that letter meant the engine was superheated: I-10sa is class I-10, superheated, subclass a.

A Reading T-1 4-8-4 assisting a westbound coal train past the slag pile at Locust Summit Pennsylvania circa 1950

A Reading T-1 4-8-4 assists a westbound coal train past the slag pile at Locust Summit, Pennsylvania, circa 1950. American-Rails.com collection. Thirty of the type, 2100–2129, were built at Reading in 1945–47 on boilers from I-10sa Consolidations.

On this page: At a glance · Wootten and the Camelback · Consolidations · Mikados, Mallets, Santa Fes · T-1 Northerns · Atlantics and Pacifics · Switchers · May 6, 1952, and the Rambles · Roster built since 1900

At a glance

Item	Detail
Railroad	Reading Company. Mark RDG. Company Reading
This roster	Engines built since 1900, after Drury, pages 277–278. Pre-1900 power is in the narrative
Fuel and cabs	Anthracite culm in a Wootten firebox, often mixed with bituminous. Camelbacks well into the twentieth century, then a turn to rear cabs on the heavy power
Freight engine	The Consolidation. I-8a Camelbacks, 117 of them, were the most numerous class. I-10sa engines of 1923 and 1925 were the largest 2-8-0s, and thirty of their boilers became 4-8-4s
Helpers	31 N-1 2-8-8-2s, 1917–19, for the grades northwest of Reading. Eleven became 2-10-2s. The other twenty became 2-8-8-0s
T-1	30 4-8-4s, 2100–2129, Reading Shops, 1945–47. 70-inch drivers, 94.5 square feet of grate
Pacifics	G-1sa, G-1sb, G-2sa, and ten G-3s in 1948, the last steam the company built. 117 and 118 streamlined in 1937 for the Crusader
Last steam	Scheduled passenger May 6, 1952, Pacific 134, Newtown to Philadelphia. T-1s on Reading freight for the last time in the spring of 1956. Rambles through October 17, 1964
Shops	Reading, Pennsylvania. New road power came from Baldwin or from those shops

Class table follows Drury, Guide to North American Steam Locomotives (revised edition), pages 277–278. Information compiled September 24, 2026.

A wide fire, and a cab in the middle

Anthracite does not burn like soft coal. It needs a thin, hot fire over a large grate, and the only grate that worked on culm was a wide one. Wootten’s 1877 firebox became the Reading standard. The mix of hard coal and bituminous changed with the route, the job, and the season. The firebox stayed wide. A wide firebox over the drivers left no room for a cab in the usual place, so the engineer sat astride the boiler in a Camelback and the fireman stayed back on the deck. Later classes, once trailing trucks carried the firebox behind the drivers, could use an ordinary cab and still keep the Wootten grate. The I-10sa and the T-1 are that second generation.

The 1900 classification is why the table looks the way it does. Nineteenth-century Americans, Ten-Wheelers, and the early Consolidations were renumbered into it or left behind. Drury’s grid starts at 1900. The engines below that line are here only when a twentieth-century class was rebuilt from them.

Three times as many Consolidations as everything else

Drury’s count is the shape of the fleet: about three times as many 2-8-0s as all the other freight types together. The I-7s, built 1898–1903, were rear-cab engines with 56-inch drivers and a narrower firebox, ordered that way because other customers wanted the anthracite. Some of them were later rebuilt as Camelbacks and given the vacated class I-6. Baldwin then built the light I-2 Consolidations, 50-inch drivers and about 154,000 pounds, to replace I-1s that dated from the early 1880s. The I-2e and I-2f engines in the table, 53 of them from Reading Shops in 1906–10, are that lightweight group. The numbers 701–802 include gaps.

The I-8a was the great class: 117 Camelbacks, Baldwin and Reading, 1905–14, 61½-inch drivers, about 226,000 pounds. They outweighed the I-6s and I-7s by 25 to 30 tons. The I-9s of 1918–21 stepped up again, to about 285,000 pounds, 25-by-32-inch cylinders, 55½-inch drivers, and 64,300 pounds of tractive force. Drury’s comparison is with a government design: heavier than a USRA light Mikado, and able to pull more than a USRA heavy Mike. Engines 1670–1699, inside the I-9 series, were ordered by the USRA in 1919 and built to Reading specifications. The class I-9sb in the table is a later group, 1900–1924, built in 1922.

The I-10sa was the end of the Consolidation on this railroad. Fifty engines, Baldwin, 1923 and 1925: 27-by-32-inch cylinders, 61½-inch drivers, 322,690 pounds, 71,000 pounds of tractive force. That put them in the same league as a USRA heavy Mike, with a tractive force about halfway between the USRA light and heavy 2-10-2. Thirty of them, 2020–2049, gave up their boilers to the T-1 program. Numbers 2000–2019 stayed 2-8-0s.

Mikados, four Russian Decapods, and the pushers

Fast freight before the T-1 was a Mikado. Baldwin and Reading Shops built 57 M-1sa 2-8-2s in 1912–17: 61½-inch drivers, 24-by-32-inch cylinders, 334,425 pounds. Acquired in the same years were 31 N-1 Mallets, Baldwin 2-8-8-2s of 1917–19, and they were pushers. The grades northwest of Reading, on the way toward the Catawissa line and Locust Summit, were their railroad. They were too slow for the main line.

Between 1927 and 1944 the company broke the class up. Eleven engines, 1800–1810, were rebuilt at Reading into K-1sa 2-10-2s, numbers 3000–3010, between 1927 and 1939. The other twenty, 1811–1830, were simplified and then lost their trailing trucks, which made them 2-8-8-0s. In 1931 Baldwin built ten new 2-10-2s, K-1sb 3011–3020, slightly larger than the rebuilds: 61½-inch drivers, 30½-by-32-inch cylinders, 451,000 pounds, 92,570 pounds of tractive effort. Drury calls them the largest Santa Fe type built. At the other end of the ten-coupled range, four Russian Decapods, J-1sa 1126–1129, Baldwin 1917–18, had short lives and were scrapped in 1935.

Boilers that became Northerns

Between 1945 and 1947 the Reading Shops built thirty 4-8-4s, class T-1, numbers 2100–2129, on the boilers of I-10sa Consolidations 2020–2049. The rear of the boiler, and the 94.5 square feet of grate, stayed Consolidation. The boiler was lengthened at the front and set on new running gear with 70-inch drivers. They were freight engines. Diesels took the regular assignments. The company stored the 4-8-4s in serviceable condition, used them for the last time on its own freight in the spring of 1956, and leased several to the Pennsylvania that fall for a traffic peak. Between 1957 and 1960 it scrapped 25 of them.

Five were left, for standby and for the excursions. Four survive: 2100, 2101, 2102, and 2124. All four worked the Rambles. No. 2102 runs again on the Reading & Northern. The excursion story, trip by trip, is the Iron Horse Rambles page. The wheel arrangement is the 4-8-4.

From the Atlantic City flyers to the G-3

Camelback 4-4-0s gave way to Camelback 4-4-2s. Drivers ran from 74 inches on the low-wheeled Atlantics to 86 inches on the engines that worked the Atlantic City Railroad between Camden and the shore. The speed run of July 20, 1904, 55.5 miles in 43 minutes, was P-4c No. 334, one of 330–339. That record, and the seashore railroad it was made on, belong to the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines page. The engine was Reading.

The railroad settled on the Atlantic after trials of high-drivered 2-4-2s and 4-2-2s. The two-wheel lead truck was judged too light for the speed, and the singles carried too little weight on the drivers. Two of those singles, rebuilt, appear in the table as D-10a 378 and D-10b 385. In 1915 the shops built four 4-4-4s, class C-1a, numbers 110–113. Drury credits them as the first American locomotives with four-wheel trailing trucks. The trailing truck matched the lead truck: 36-inch spoked wheels straddling the ashpan hoppers. A four-point suspension failed. In 1916 the four engines were rebuilt into Atlantics, P-7sa 350–353.

Between 1909 and 1911 the shops also built six experimental passenger engines as a controlled test. Atlantics 300 and 303 and Ten-Wheeler 675 had three cylinders. Atlantics 301 and 302 and Ten-Wheeler 676 had two, and were the comparison. Within a few years the three-cylinder engines were rebuilt with two. The 80-inch Atlantics and the 74-inch Ten-Wheelers are P-6 and L-10 in the table. Ten-Wheeler 675 is the three-cylinder L-10a. Camelback Ten-Wheelers did the local passenger work after larger power took the fast trains, and five L-5a engines, 593–597, went to the Jersey Central.

The Pacific arrived in 1916. Drury’s text credits Reading Shops with the first five, 105–109. His table lists the whole G-1sa block, 105–129, as Baldwin, 1916–23. Five more 4-6-2s came in each year through 1926 except 1920 and 1922: G-1sa 130–134 in 1924, G-1sb 200–204 in 1925, and the 74-inch-drivered G-2sa 175–179 in 1926. The others had 80-inch drivers and 25-by-28-inch cylinders. Weights ran from 273,600 to 305,360 pounds. In 1937 the shops streamlined G-1sa 117 and 118 for the Budd Crusader. Engines 108 and 178 received a similar treatment about the same time.

The last steam the company built was also a Pacific. Ten G-3s, 210–219, came out of Reading Shops in 1948 on the 1916 design, modernized with cast trailing trucks, disk main drivers, and feedwater heaters, at 329,450 pounds. G-3 No. 211 was still in showroom paint at Jersey City on May 1, 1948, the week it was new. They were the last new passenger power, and they outlasted the Crusader’s steam assignments on the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines’ summer peaks into 1955.

Docks, sharp curves, and one engine at Strasburg

The twentieth-century switcher fleet was still mostly Camelback. Fifty-seven Camelback 0-4-0s, classes A-4a and A-5a, worked the tight industrial track and the waterfront. The newest, the A-5a, weighed 110,450 pounds. One of the older engines, A-4a 1187, survives as Strasburg Rail Road No. 4.

The most numerous Camelback 0-6-0 was the B-7a, 36 engines, slide valves, 55-inch drivers, 162,000 pounds. The B-8a put 50-inch drivers on a 108-inch wheelbase so it could go where an 0-4-0 could go. The five B-6a engines were the oddities in the group: rear cab, narrow firebox, 124,900 pounds, the sort of six-wheel switcher any other railroad would have recognized. The twenty B-9a engines were the only superheated switchers, rear-cab Wootten engines with piston valves. The E-3a 0-8-0s were Camelbacks rebuilt in 1905 from Vauclain compound 2-8-0s of 1892–96, light enough for branch rail. The E-5sa 0-8-0s of 1924–25 were the heavy end: rear cab, superheated, 280,000 pounds.

Suburban tanks close the odd-wheel list. Ten Q-1 2-6-4Ts, Baldwin 1903–04, numbers 376–385, worked the Philadelphia locals until the wires and the multiple-unit cars made them unnecessary. They were gone between 1930 and 1936. One 0-6-0T, B-4a 1251, was a Reading product of 1918.

The last fire, and then the excursions

By the spring of 1952 the freight railroad was dieselized except for traffic peaks. The last scheduled passenger train with a steam locomotive ran on May 6, 1952, from Newtown to Philadelphia behind G-1sa Pacific 134. G-3s kept showing up on seashore peaks for another three summers. The T-1s’ last Reading freight was in the spring of 1956. The Iron Horse Rambles began on October 25, 1959, behind 2124, and the last official Ramble ran on October 17, 1964.

Reading steam locomotives built since 1900

Rows and figures follow Drury’s table. Camelback, rebuild, and preservation notes are from his chapter. A blank retirement cell is blank in Drury’s table.

Type	Class	Numbers	Qty	Builder	Built	Retired	Notes
0-4-0	A-4a	1187–1200	14	Baldwin	1902–1903	1935–	Camelback. 1187 survives as Strasburg No. 4
0-4-0	A-4a	1246–1250	5	Baldwin	1902	1935–	Camelback
0-4-0	A-5a	1147–1184	38	Baldwin, Reading	1906–1913	1929–	Camelback. 110,450 lb
0-6-0T	B-4a	1251	1	Reading	1918	—
0-6-0	B-6a	1311–1315	5	Baldwin	1903	1929–	Rear cab, narrow firebox, 124,900 lb
0-6-0	B-7a	1321–1356	36	Baldwin, Reading	1906–1913	1929–	Camelback. 55-in drivers, 162,000 lb
0-6-0	B-8a	1316–1318	3	Baldwin	1907	—	Camelback. 50-in drivers, 108-in wheelbase
0-6-0	B-8b	1393–1399	7	Reading	1913, 1921	—	Camelback
0-6-0	B-9a	1451–1470	20	Reading	1917–1918	—	Rear cab, Wootten, piston valves. Only superheated switchers
0-8-0	E-3a	1400–1409	10	Baldwin	1905	1937–	Camelback. Rebuilt from Vauclain compound 2-8-0s of 1892–1896
0-8-0	E-5sa	1490–1499	10	Baldwin	1924–1925	—	Rear cab, superheated, 280,000 lb
2-6-4T	Q-1	376–385	10	Baldwin	1903–1904	1930–1936	Philadelphia suburban tanks
2-8-0	I-2e, I-2f	701–802	53	Reading	1906–1910	1923–1940	Not sequential. Light 50-in-driver engines, about 154,000 lb
2-8-0	I-7a, b, c	961–1020	60	Baldwin	1898–1900	1923–	Rear cab, 56-in drivers. Some later rebuilt to Camelback I-6s
2-8-0	I-7c, d	1023–1097	75	Baldwin	1901–1903	1926–	Rear cab as built
2-8-0	I-6a, b, c	1101–1125	25	Baldwin	1905, 1907	1935–1941	Camelback. Rebuilt from I-7s
2-8-0	I-8a	1501–1617	117	Baldwin, Reading	1905–1914	1937–1945	Camelback. Most numerous Consolidation. 61½-in drivers, about 226,000 lb
2-8-0	I-9s, b	1625–1699	75	Baldwin	1918–1921	—	About 285,000 lb, 64,300 lb tractive force. 1670–1699 ordered by the USRA, built 1919 to Reading specs
2-8-0	I-9sb	1900–1924	25	Baldwin	1922	—
2-8-0	I-10sa	2000–2049	50	Baldwin	1923, 1925	—	27×32, 61½-in drivers, 322,690 lb, 71,000 lb tractive force. 2020–2049 rebuilt as T-1 4-8-4s, 1945–47
2-8-2	M-1sa	1700–1756	57	Reading, Baldwin	1912–1917	—	61½-in drivers, 24×32, 334,425 lb
2-10-0	J-1sa	1126–1129	4	Baldwin	1917–1918	1935	Russian Decapods
2-10-2	K-1sa	3000–3010	11	Reading	1927–1939	—	Rebuilt from N-1 2-8-8-2s 1800–1810
2-10-2	K-1sb	3011–3020	10	Baldwin	1931	—	New engines. 61½-in drivers, 30½×32, 451,000 lb, 92,570 lb tractive effort
2-8-8-2	N-1sa, c	1800–1810	11	Baldwin	1917–1918	—	Pushers. Rebuilt to K-1sa 2-10-2s
2-8-8-2	N-1sb, c	1811–1830	20	Baldwin	1918–1919	—	Pushers. Simplified, then rebuilt to 2-8-8-0s
4-4-0	D-5f	260–279	20	Baldwin	1901–1902	1928–1936	Camelback
4-4-0	D-5h	280–294	15	Baldwin	1906	1925–1940	Camelback
4-4-0	D-8b	242–246, 250	6	Reading	1903, 1907	1922–1934	Camelback
4-4-0	D-8c	400–409	10	Reading	1911	1932–1940	Camelback
4-4-0	D-10a	378	1	Reading	1904	1930	Camelback. Rebuilt from a 4-2-2
4-4-0	D-10b	385	1	Reading	1905	1933	Camelback. Rebuilt from a 4-2-2
4-4-0	D-11s	410–419	10	Baldwin	1914	1941–1945
4-4-0	—	100	1	Baldwin	1902	1925	Renumbered 102 in 1912
4-4-0	—	103	1	Reading	1903	1912
4-4-2	P-1c	318–321	4	Baldwin	1900	1930, 1933	Camelback
4-4-2	P-2a	304–310	7	Reading	1907–1911	1934–1936	Camelback
4-4-2	P-2a	315–317	3	Reading	1907–1911	1923–1934	Camelback
4-4-2	P-3a	322–327	6	Baldwin	1900	1930, 1933	Camelback
4-4-2	P-3b	329	1	Baldwin	1902	1933	Camelback
4-4-2	P-4a	328	1	Baldwin	1902	1933	Camelback
4-4-2	P-4b, c	330–339	10	Baldwin	1903–1904	1933–1935	Camelback. 334 made the July 20, 1904 Atlantic City run
4-4-2	P-5	340–349	10	Reading	1906	1944–	Camelback
4-4-2	P-6a	300, 303	2	Reading	1909, 1911	—	Three cylinders, 80-in drivers. Later rebuilt to two cylinders
4-4-2	P-6b	301, 302	2	Reading	1911	—	Camelback. Two-cylinder comparison engines for 300 and 303
4-4-2	P-7sa	350–353	4	Reading	1916	—	Rebuilt from C-1a 4-4-4s 110–113
4-4-2	—	100	1	Reading	1913	1929
4-4-4	C-1a	110–113	4	Reading	1915	1916	Rebuilt to P-7sa Atlantics in 1916. Four-wheel trailing truck
4-6-0	F-2d	29 / 1025	1	Reading	1903	1916
4-6-0	L-4b	571–580	10	Baldwin	1900	1928–
4-6-0	L-5a	587–601	15	Baldwin	1902–1903	—	Camelback. 593–597 to the Jersey Central
4-6-0	L-6b	299	1	Reading	1905	1927
4-6-0	L-7a	602–615	14	Baldwin, Reading	1905, 1910	1936–	Camelback
4-6-0	L-8a	691–700	10	Baldwin	1906	—	Camelback
4-6-0	L-8b	650–654	5	Reading	1911	1944–	Camelback
4-6-0	L-10a	675	1	Reading	1911	—	Camelback. Three cylinders, 74-in drivers. Later two cylinders
4-6-0	L-10b	676	1	Reading	1911	—	Camelback. Two-cylinder comparison engine for 675
4-6-2	G-1sa	105–129	30	Baldwin	1916–1923	—	Drury’s text credits Reading Shops with 105–109 in 1916. 80-in drivers. 117 and 118 streamlined in 1937 for the Crusader. 134 hauled the last scheduled steam passenger train, May 6, 1952
4-6-2	G-1sa	130–134	5	Baldwin	1924	—	80-in drivers
4-6-2	G-1sb	200–204	5	Baldwin	1925	—	80-in drivers
4-6-2	G-2sa	175–179	5	Baldwin	1926	—	74-in drivers. 178 also streamlined
4-6-2	G-3	210–219	10	Reading	1948	—	Last steam Reading built. 329,450 lb. PRSL passenger peaks into 1955
4-8-4	T-1	2100–2129	30	Reading	1945–1947	1957–	Boilers from I-10sa 2020–2049. 70-in drivers, 94.5 sq ft grate. 2100, 2101, 2102, and 2124 survive. Photo: Locust Summit

Sources

George H. Drury, Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, revised edition, pp. 275–278. Class table transcribed from the author’s copy of the chapter.
Drury on the last scheduled steam passenger train: Pacific 134, May 6, 1952, Newtown to Philadelphia. T-1 freight use through the spring of 1956, and the PRR lease that fall, are his account.
Iron Horse Rambles dates, October 25, 1959 through October 17, 1964, and the four surviving T-1s, follow this site’s Rambles page. Drury’s chapter ends the excursions in 1963 and counts three survivors.
July 20, 1904: P-4c No. 334, as corrected on this site’s Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines page.
Drury’s own further roster reference is Bert Pennypacker, Reading Power Pictorial (1973).

Facebook X Pinterest Tumblr Reddit WhatsApp Messenger