1223

1223

Once a high-stepping old gal, Pennsylvania Railroad Locomotive No.1223, a 4-4-0 “American” type steam locomotive was built by the railroad in its Altoona shops in 1905.

The type would be popular on the passenger train mainlines of the PRR for only a short while longer, as the railroad had turned to building heavier steel cars, and brawnier locomotives were designed to pull such trains.

The railroad reduced the height of the driving wheels of this class, and they found use for several more years in secondary applications.

In 1965, No.1223 was leased by the PRR to the Strasburg Rail Road in Strasburg, Pennsylvania, where she pulled tourist and excursion trains of wooden passenger cars for several more years. In 1969, she was used in the film version of the musical “Hello Dolly.”

She’d probably still be making nostalgic passengers smile, but in 1989, an ultrasound examination of her firebox revealed it was too thin to meet Federal Railway Administration safety standards, and the Strasburg RR decided to put her on static display.

Happily, I got to see her under steam before that. Here she is awaiting a switching move at Leaman Place, the Strasburg RR’s junction with the former Pennsylvania Railroad’s (now Amtrak) Philadelphia-Harrisburg high-speed mainline. It was on a splendid autumn afternoon in 1978, full of PRR history, as a special excursion pulled by one of the last of PRR’s iconic GG1 electric locomotives (*) would soon be blasting by along that high-speed mainline (once 1223 was safely back on her home rails!).

I decided to go “nostalgic” with this image, created from the original Fujichrome-100 color slide, shot with a Pentax Spotmatic through a Pentax/Takumar 50 mm f/1.4 lens.

The photo makes its first appearance this year. It is available in archival gallery prints and as a photo note card.

©2016 Steve Ember

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