{"id":37594,"date":"2023-11-12T06:11:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-12T11:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=37594"},"modified":"2023-11-12T18:44:08","modified_gmt":"2023-11-12T23:44:08","slug":"reading-northern-sd38-2004","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/reading-northern-sd38-2004\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading & Northern SD38 2004"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On October 21st, Kris and I paused at Reading & Northern’s Tamaqua (Pa.) Yard, where I photographed the railroad’s No. 2004. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initially, I was interested in making photos of the locomotives resting here in an autumnal scene. When I recognized 2004 as one of the railroad’s ‘rare’ SD38s, I decided to make the most of this find.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previously on Tracking the Light I featured Reading & Northern SD38 number 2000\u2014a former Penn Central locomotive. (See: http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/rare-bird-on-the-reading-northern\/)<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any locomotive more than a half-century old is undoubtedly worthy of attention. However, where the four-motor GP38 was among the most common EMD diesel-electrics of the late 1960s and early 1970s, with a great many still at work on American rails, its six-motor cousin was never common. Among the 53 SD38s built, Detroit, Toledo & Ironton bought five. Similar in appearance to the SD38, was the six-motor SD40 numbered more than 850 built. Even more common was the seemly ubiquitous SD40-2, which numbered in the thousands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Grand Trunk Western acquired DT&I in 1983, these rare birds joined the GTW roster. In 1986, I was surprised to find a freshly painted GTW SD38 working a cable laying train on the Central Vermont Railway in Palmer, Massachusetts. It was the first time, I’d ever seen a six-motor diesel on CV’s Palmer Subdivision. In researching the history of the 2004\u2014pictured here\u2014I found that R&N’s 2003 (GTW 6253) was the locomotive I’d photographed all those years ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hopefully, during our wanderings in coal country over the coming weeks and months, I’ll come across R&N 2003, which will bring me full circle with this rolling antique and help complete my SD38 photo story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm Z-series zoom.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm Z-series zoom.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Nikon Z6 with 70-200mm Z-series zoom.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm Z-series zoom.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Nikon Z7-II with 24-70mm Z-series zoom.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tracking the Light Posts Daily!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Any locomotive more than a half-century old is undoubtedly worthy of attention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37599,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[6060,10,6108,48],"tags":[7714,5131,7],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/RN_2004_at_Tamaqua_Yard_PA_DSC_4879.jpg?fit=1800%2C1200","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BVuC-9Mm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37594"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37594"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37612,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37594\/revisions\/37612"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}