Previously, I’ve discussed my quest to located Reading & Northern SD38 2003, having stumbled upon R&N SD38s 2000 and 2004 during my wanders through coal country in recent years.

My desire to locate 2003 is to complete a circle that began in the summer of 1986, when I photoraphed this locomotive in a previous incarnation as Grand Trunk Western GTW 6253. This had arrived Palmer, Massachusetts leading a Central Vermont fiber-optic cable laying train.

See: http://briansolomon.com/trackingthelight/reading-northern-sd38-2004/

I find it remarable that this unusual General Motors diesel has survived all these years and now regularly operates relatively near my new home in Pennsylvania. Yet, despite various trips to photograph the Reading & Northern, the 2003 has eluded me.

My friend and fellow photographer, Pat Yough, suggested I check the yard at Pittston Junction (near Wilkes-Barre), as the 2003 might be there.

My wife, Kris, and I called into Pittston Junction on a beautiful November afternoon. There was an array of locomotives and rolling stock here. Initially, I’d spotted an SD38, and I though for a moment my quest was over.

On closer inspection, I discovered it was locomotive 2004, again. The same SD38 that I’d spotted a month earlier at Tamaqua.

Ironically, among the other Reading & Northern equipment at Pittston Junction was a streamlined passenger car named for Solomons Gap.

My quest was to be continued . . .

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