Steam & Excursion > Saturday / Sunday track car excursions on RBMN

On Saturday and Sunday, two NARCOA track car excursions were run over the Reading & Northern tracks. The total number of cars signed up for this was fifty cars. Saturday’s run left from Reading’s Outer Station and ran the mainline to Jim Thorpe and returned. Participants had to deal with a cold rain and gusty winds on Saturday. It definitely wasn’t spring weather. Sunday's run, held under warmer temperatures and lots of sunshine, started from the Outer Station and passed through Schuylkill Haven, Tremont, Good Spring and Middleport, and returned. Here are some scenes from those trips.
PHOTO 1: Chessie System track car 6240 is coming to a stop at the Tamaqua station where a forty-five break was scheduled. Despite the weather there were a number of onlookers to greet the track cars.
PHOTO 2: A CN Austin Mini Cooper track car? In all my years photographing track cars, this particular car was a first for me. Any information about this car would be appreciated.
PHOTO 3: A roster shot of that car while it was in Tamaqua.
 

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PHOTO 4: Considering what the weather was like all day, I hope that this operator’s foul weather gear did keep him warm and dry as he was coming into RBMN’s Jim Thorpe Yard.
PHOTO 5: After all the track cars were in Jim Thorpe and tied down on Track 3 in the yard, some of the people boarded the LGSRY train for the 1 PM ride.
PHOTO 6: On Sunday, one of the speeders is seen passing through the flagged Main Street grade crossing in Tremont.
 

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The CN converted several road vehicles to track inspection cars including full sizes Chevy vans which had a hydraulic turntable ram right in the middle of the cargo space.
I think they wanted a cheap solution to a weatherproof inspection vehicles. I this case you saw a converted Mini not a Mini Cooper. The Mini Cooper and the later Mini cooper S where more expensive high performance versions with twin curbs, a more aggressive cam and higher speed gearing. indeed the Cooper S had to have an extra head bolt to cope with the added power. Some years ago I saw one of the Chevy vans in the Yard at the McCloud railroad in Northern California.
ST2K


 

That Mini was being towed into Schuykill Haven this afternoon by a Southern painted speeder. There was about a 30-45 minute pause between when the first cars showed up and when the rest of the fleet showed up. I wonder if that was the cause of the delay?

All in all really neat stuff to see!
Dan

Posted from iPhone

Noticed in photo 5 there is a crossover.  Was not aware of it previously.  Has it been there a long time?
jb

For safe and legal motor car excursions go to narcoa.org and railspeeders.com.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/27/23 17:53 by run8.

The Mini is very cool.  I believe they were imported into Canada a bit longer than into the US, and the CNR wasn't shy about buying small imported cars (see photo), so the rail-Mini is probably legit'.
SR

BTW:  The Mini here is a later model than the '64 I drove years ago- it has roll-up windows and hidden door hinges.  Also, it's probably not a Cooper.  Mini-Coopers were a distincit model with Cooper specified upgrades.  (Think Shelby Mustang)

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The CN Rail Mini is "legit" and an original from CN.  There is another one floating around, but I am unsure if it is fully restored.   A gentleman in Ohio that made many new parts for speeders had bought them directly from CN when auctioned off.   That gentleman has since passed and both were sold to other individuals.   This one is owned by the owner of Sierra Aeronautics.  A really good guy in the speeder hobby.  He travels all over the US with this and other speeders in his collection.