On the heels of its most successful year to date in 2024, the Reading & Northern Railroad Passenger Department has acquired several new pieces of rolling stock as it prepares for an even bigger year in 2025. This will allow for greater flexibility in passenger operations as well as enhanced experiences for guests.

As of 9:00am today, tickets for regularly scheduled weekend excursions to Jim Thorpe from Reading Outer Station and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Regional Railroad Station at Pittston are on sale as well. This year, these trains will begin on Saturday, March 15, 2025, and run every weekend (plus Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day) through the end of December. A separate slate of Fall Foliage  excursions for October and early November is to be announced later this year. What follows is a synopsis of the new passenger equipment, any or all of which is sure to turn up on these popular excursions in 2025.

Three former Delaware Lackawanna & Western coaches are at the heart of this acquisition. All are equipped with roller bearings, which will allow for a smoother ride and reduced wear. They will fit seamlessly into the existing fleet of #300-series Standard Coaches that have been the backbone of the Reading & Northern passenger roster since the 1980s.
A Pennsylvania Railroad commuter coach will also be welcomed into the fleet and serve as Crown Class Coach #671. Crown Class Coaches account for most of the service on all-day excursions from Pittston to Jim Thorpe; and are also very popular on Iron Horse Rambles steam trains. They can also be found on Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway trains as an inexpensive upgrade from Standard Coach seating. Another dining car is also part of the stable of new equipment. The King Coal Café, which is housed in our existing dining car #1167, and added to the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway train in late 2024, has proven to be an enormous hit with guests. Finally, a generator car rounds out the new additions. With the
Passenger Department sometimes operating as many as five trains on a given weekend, the new generator car will provide much-needed reinforcement.

All of this equipment is scheduled to be interchanged to Reading & Northern on Tuesday, January 14, 2025 at Mount Carmel from the Shamokin Valley Railroad. The cars will travel southbound over the railroad’s Mahanoy & Shamokin Branch to East Mahanoy Junction, where they will turn north on the Main Line to head to the Nesquehoning Campus. They will be on display for a brief period before each is pulled into the car shops to be overhauled and repainted into Reading & Northern’s classic red passenger scheme. As passenger movements over this route are a rarity, railfans and the public are of course invited to witness it. The railroad asks that those who do follow this move do it safely and without trespassing on railroad property.

-via Press Release