Steam & Excursion > Steam leased by Pennsy in 1956

I've seen photos of leased steam in use by the Pennsy in 1956 from Reading, RF&P, and Santa Fe.  Were there any other roads from which Pennsy leased steam power that year?  Is there any good documentation on Pennsy's use of leased steamers?

I was not aware that the Pennsy leased any RF&P locomotives. Where were they used?

dcoursey Wrote:
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> I was not aware that the Pennsy leased any RF&P
> locomotives. Where were they used?

Wasn't the PRR lease of RF&P 4-8-4's in the 1950 - 1951 period of time ?
RF&P then leased them circa 1956 to C&O ?

Check out this link

https://jbritton.pennsyrr.com/index.php/tpm/140-foreign-locomotives-on-the-prr

dcoursey Wrote:
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> I was not aware that the Pennsy leased any RF&P
> locomotives. Where were they used?

I haven't seen that. I would like to hear any evidence of it occurring., RF&P finished dieselization largely by the end of 1952, but retained a few  4-8-4's for emergency service, I think the last were off-roster by the end of 1954, but I have seen mentioned that C&O leased a few engines for a brief period in 1955.

train1275 Wrote:
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> Check out this link
>
> https://jbritton.pennsyrr.com/index.php/tpm/140-foreign-locomotives-on-the-prr

Now that is interesting. Pennsy did lease some RF&P engines, but in 1950 instead of 1956

I had no idea the Pennsy leased so many locomotives from so many different railroads! Thanks for sharing this info! I learn something new on Trainorders every day!

And not steam, but the Pennsy leased Wabash F7s and BAR Geeps.

Victor Baird

train1275 Wrote:
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> dcoursey Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I was not aware that the Pennsy leased any RF&P
> > locomotives. 
> RF&P then leased them circa 1956 to C&O ?

10 RF&P 4-8-4's 613=622 were leased by the C&O  July 1955,  They were returned April-July 1956.

ts1457 Wrote:
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> dcoursey Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I was not aware that the Pennsy leased any RF&P
> > locomotives. Where were they used?
>
> I haven't seen that. I would like to hear any
> evidence of it occurring., RF&P finished
> dieselization largely by the end of 1952, but
> retained a few  4-8-4's for emergency service, I
> think the last were off-roster by the end of 1954,
> but I have seen mentioned that C&O leased a few
> engines for a brief period in 1955

In David Sweetland's 1992 book "Pennsy Steam Years - Volume 1, on pages 56-57, he states, "In the winter of 1955-6, the power-short PRR went south to the RF&P to lease some of its 4-8-4's."  Photos on those two pages show RF&P 552 and 602 hauling trains.

Interesting.  Don't think I ever heard of PRR leasing RF & P locomotives before.

I had known the Pennsy leased some of Santa Fe's 2-10-4s that year.  Decades ago, Trains magazine devoted an entire issue to them.  As I recall, the PRR hoggers rather liked the ATSF oil-burners, which saw use at many of the same locations the J-1s were in use.

Also IIRC, the J-1s had similar-ish specifications to the second batch of ATSF 2-10-4s, which were built in the same time frame, needed to move wartime traffic.

LTCerny Wrote:
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> In David Sweetland's 1992 book "Pennsy Steam Years
> - Volume 1, on pages 56-57, he states, "In the
> winter of 1955-6, the power-short PRR went south
> to the RF&P to lease some of its 4-8-4's." 
> Photos on those two pages show RF&P 552 and 602
> hauling trains.

Thanks for that information. Hard to argue with. It would have been interesting to see RF&P steam a few years after that road was dieselized.

KurtBWNews Wrote:
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> Interesting.  Don't think I ever heard of PRR
> leasing RF & P locomotives before.
>
> I had known the Pennsy leased some of Santa Fe's
> 2-10-4s that year.  Decades ago, Trains magazine
> devoted an entire issue to them.  As I recall,
> the PRR hoggers rather liked the ATSF oil-burners,
> which saw use at many of the same locations the
> J-1s were in use.
>
> Also IIRC, the J-1s had similar-ish specifications
> to the second batch of ATSF 2-10-4s, which were
> built in the same time frame, needed to move
> wartime traffic.

IIRC, the J-1's were built almost exactly from C&O's T-1 2-10-4's, albeit with a larger cab and a few other changes.