When the Delaware & Hudson celebrated its sesquicentennial in 1973, there were no D&H steam survivors, so Reading 4-8-4 2102 was fitted with “elephant ears” smoke deflectors and renumbered 302 to resemble a D&H 4-8-4 of the same number. Ironically, there were no operable Reading Company steam locomotives when its sesquicentennial occurred ten years later. George Hart’s Canadian Pacific ten-wheeler was enlisted to pull a series of main line excursions on Conrail’s ex-Reading lines. Lettered for Philadelphia & Reading, 972, which bore no resemblance to anything that ever graced the Reading’s roster, leads a Reading – Philadelphia trip east at Velley Forge, Pennsylvania.
