RDG 2101

Reading 2101 is a T-1 class 4-8-4.

About
2101 was built in the Reading shops in 1945. She is one of four surviving Reading T-1 class locomotives. She was used mainly for fright service in the 1950s. She was scheduled to operate during the Reading's Iron Horse Rambles but never operated. She was then sold to engineer Ross Rowland in 1975. In 1975 & 1976 she was operated as American Freedom Train #1 for the bicentennial celebration. In 1977 & 1978 she was repainted in to the Chessie System paint scheme to be used as the Chessie Steam Special engine. In February of 1979 she was damaged in a roundhouse fire. She was later sold to the B&O Railroad Museum where she was cosmetically restored to her American Freedom Train look. Today she sits at the museum with her freedom train paint scheme before she purchased for $560,000 by the Northern Ohio Preservation Society, who has the intent of leasing the locomotive to the Northern Ohio Railroad Museum. On June 22, No. 2101's boiler and the frame were separated and were prepped along with its tender to be shipped by truck to Seville, Ohio, and on the evening of June 29, No. 2101 arrived in Seville safely, and it touched Ohio soil for the first time since it was built in Reading Shops back in 1945. It was shortly after moved by EMD GP38-2 No. 5128 inside a newly built facility for an overhaul that began in the fall. The locomotive is expected to run again in 2022 with no current planned return date.