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The Philadelphia Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society Established in 1936

Railfan Pictures of the Day - 05/03/2005

East Penn Bethlehem Branch Quakertown PA April 27 2005

Shortlines are often the lowest on the food chain when it comes to equipment, scrounging for pieces that larger railroads discard, then putting them to work and extending their useful lives. Almost all such equipment is rare, odd, or old, sometimes all three, which is why railfans love shortlines, and East Penn Railway is no exception.

Alco RS1 EPRY 57 came from Washington Terminal (DC) by way of Black River & Western Railroad, where it wore the same number on all three railroads. Unfortunately it appears to be out of service.

Qualifying in both the rare and old categories is this former Raritan River Railroad box car #100, renumbered as CR 47163. It was the first all steel box car the railroad purchased and reportedly the only box car on the roster when Conrail took over the RRRR in 1976. It was formerly used as a shed in Lancaster (see Conrail Cyclopedia) before finding a home here.

Bay window caboose EPRY C339 was one of 50 built for the Erie Lackawanna by International Corporation back in 1953. It started life as EL C339 and later became Conrail Class N-7D CR 21118 until it was retired and sold to the New Hope and Ivyland Railroad before coming here.

This plug door box car EPRY 516 still wears its Chicago Northwestern Railroad "Employee Owned" logo. It appears to be one of a series of C&NW RBL (bunkerless, non-mechanical insulated) box cars built by GATX in the 1960's, numbered from 32616 to 32702.

This Kershaw Tie Crane came from the Union Pacific where it wore designation THC-38M.

The pride of EPRY's Quakertown operation is B23-7 EPRY 3153, which in its past life was CSX 3153 and before that the famous CR 1933, the power for Conrail's Geometry Train. Pictured here tied up at the Fibermark Plant, notice the yellow stripes on the cutout pilot, denoting use in third rail territory.

All pictures April 27 2005 c. 2005 John P. Almeida

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Website created June 12, 2002

Last Updated May 3, 2005