On a recent visit to Port Clinton, Pa., I made this photo of Reading & Northern SW8M 803. This antique EMD switcher is well worth photographing.
End-cab switchers were once common on American railroads, but in recent decades the type has become increasingly scarce.
This particular locomotive was built in 1951 for the Lehigh Valley, and according to R&N, it once carried the number Lehigh Valley 270. It survives on the R&N roster along with other vintage examples of EMD’s end-cab switchers, and is among several operational examples of former Lehigh Valley switchers remaining in Pennsylvania.
Exposed using a Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm Nikkor Z-Series zoom lens.
A few weeks back, I was conducting my research at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.
Before my appointment to review literature from railroads of the past, I wandered across the street where Strasburg Rail Road’s former New York Central SW8 8618 was switching out a passenger consist.
I have a fondness for black EMD switchers. When I was about five, my father bought me a Lionel NW-2 painted for Santa Fe—black with the railroad’s classic logo. That small engine, no 623, is presently beneath our Christmas Tree, where on command it leads a short consist on a figure 8.
