by Marc Glucksman
A December 16, 2022, to the SMS Lines shop in Bridgeport, Logan Township, N.J., showed a significant amount of work going on in the company’s recently expanded shop. From recently arrived passenger cars to long-owned engines getting their overhaul, the shop always has a multitude of projects in progress. SMS Rail Lines began in 1994 and maintains operations at a half-dozen locations in the Philadelphia/southern New Jersey market and Capital Region/Upstate New York. Increasingly, the railroad is doing work not only on its own engines, but for other railroads as well.
Perhaps the first thing that motive power enthusiasts think of when they think SMS Lines, is Baldwin. And while the railroad has an assortment of these Pennsylvania-built locomotives, including everything from a 1940 VO660 to AS616s and DS44s, that is but one part of the story. There are also SWs built by EMDs, GE B23-7s, and even an Alco 0-6-0 steam locomotive…