Hello there. So, I have a quick question regarding Reading 2101. In most photos I've seen of the T-Hog during her days pulling the AFT (At least in her 3rd livery) The primary color of the locomotive seems to be either dark blue or black. Can anybody clarify what color the engine actually wore? (On That note, would anyone like to see the 2101 restored for America's 250th Birthday?)

Dark blue, when it was first turned out of the B&O roundhouse in Baltimore, and made the April 1975 trips through the northeast and New England.

Howard P.

My guess is that still remained that way? By the way, thank you.

To answer your 250 question, more than likely not. I don’t want to say never because if you throw enough money at it, you could make it happen. However, this locomotive was burned up in a roundhouse fire. Possibility of too many parts, including boiler and frame, compromised. Thus the reason, short story version, why Ross Rowland now owns the C&O 614. By the time you figure up all parts and labor, it could be half or the same cost of building a new steam locomotive. It would be neat to see the remaining Reading T-1’s operationally restored, but I’ll be happy with 2100, 2102 or both. A cosmetic restoration is not out of the question but it still takes money and labor.

I caught 2101 heading south through Newark, DE on a rainy day in 1976. It sure looked dark blue to me.

There are already two Reading T1s under restoration. I have no doubt that both will see the rails again. No reason to have three or even four operable.

I spent way too much time at that station in the 1980s--too lte for GG1s and AFT.

Did a touch of work on those faded photos.

Here are my pics:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/20941728@ ... 502838042/

What I was told then it was painted at Collinwood and it was black.

When I toured the AFT in Cleveland in '75, the 2101 was not there. I was told it was at Collinwood yard having work done, but they didn't say what kind of work. Sure looks like it was black in Collinwood yard. Personally I liked the dark blue better, but I wasn't paying the bills. Of course there is someone on here who could give us the definitive word...

IIRC she was a shade of dark blue when she came out of the B&O's Riverside Roundhouse in Baltimore,Md. ( April '75) black when she came out of the 1st. repaint in Cleveland, Ohio ( May '75) and again dark blue when she came out of Birmingham, Alabama ( Jan.-May '76)

The back story is that when Penn-Central notified the AFT Foundation in Dec.'74 that the SP 4449 could not come east of Chicago on account of tight clearances in the east we had to scramble hard to find steam that could haul the 24 car long train and fit in the east.

The answer was the 2 T-1's that had sat in the Striegle & Co. junkyard in Baltimore, Md. We chose the 2101 to be the runner and used her sister 2100 as a parts source.

By the time we made the purchase arrangements and got the 2 engines moved from the junkyard to the B&O's Riverside Roundhouse there was just a month left before the committed April 1st. Grand Opening in Wilmington, Del.

Bill Benson from Akron, Ohio and his crew of 51 paid professionals and approx. 125 volunteers from across the country labored night and day and in 30 days/nights had the 2101 ( AFT 1 ) under steam. We had just enough time left for a quick break in roundtrip from Baltimore to Hagerstown and then a very fast paint job in Riverside. We left Riverside with the paint on the handrails still tacky.

We met the consist at Cameron Station with 3 minutes to spare and the rest is history.

Bill Benson was a foreman at the Cleveland PC shop before he hired on with the AFT and thus when we got there on our first leg of the 48 state journey he had her given a more respectable paint job there as the above photos show.

Then, when the T-1 turned the train over to the 4449 in Chicago we moved the T-1 to the Southern RR shop in Birmingham and under the direction of graphic artist Bob Lorenz from Fremont, Ohio she was given a first rate repainting including the hand painted Great Seal of the United States on both sides of the tender.

Now you know the whole story. Happy New Year, Ross Rowland

Could we ask a favor?

We rail archivists in the Baltimore area are pretty tired of seeing every conceivable mangled version of the name of the guy who was the personal savior of at least four major steam locomotives--Reading 2100 and 2101, and B&O 4500 and 5300.

It stings even more when a first-hand participant in one of the rescues gets it wrong as part of the "historical record" as above, and everyone's going to cite the "guy who was there" as their excuse.

For the record, the name of the gentleman in question, and his company, was STRIEGEL.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1303

At one of the stops, probably Morristown, I recall being asked "Why are you painting the engine blue?" I had a large bucket and brush and was busy working on the boiler. However, I wasn't painting, I was just scrubbing the road grime off the loco. Since the last trip had included several tunnels, and the steam tended to blast years of accumulated grime off the tunnel roof, at that point it really did look black.

Attractive paint scheme

There's a decades-old joke that the paint shade known as "PRR Brunswick Green", officially "Dark Green Locomotive Enamel" on PRR documents, is one part green and nine/ten/99 parts black.

I think a similar paint ratio may have been involved with AFT 1's "blue"......

So, the correct answer to the original question is, Yes.