MINERSVILLE, Pa. — Mid-May marked the return of Central Railroad of New Jersey No. 113 for its 2024 operating season. Back-to-back Saturdays on May 11 and 18 saw the heavy 0-6-0 switcher in steam at its Minersville home for a night photo session and a series of excursions, respectively.
Offseason work beforehand focused on general maintenance with no major rebuild projects on the docket, according to Robert E. Kimmel Jr., president of the Railway Restoration Project 113. Much like last October’s night photo session [See “CNJ No. 113 delights photographers…” Trains News Wire, Oct. 25, 2023], the May 11 event — organized by Dak Dillon Photography and MPT Photography — was an opportunity for the nonprofit organization to seize on by surveying the completed work. “The [sold out] night photo session worked out well because it was really a test for the following week when we get to operate it,” Kimmel explained.
That operation on May 18 highlighted six passenger excursions for Minersville’s first Community Day celebration. Between No. 113’s home base at the former Philadelphia & Reading Railroad station and Reading Anthracite’s New St. Nicholas Breaker, the locomotive operated 40-minute round trips along the Reading & Northern Railroad. Additional non-passenger runs before and afterwards were made for testing and to reset all the derails.
While future events and excursions for No. 113 in 2024 have yet to be announced, Kimmel confirms work on one of the superheater units will be performed in preparation for the next scheduled operations. “That’s what we’re going to start on this weekend,” he said. “Fix that up, reinstall it, and we’ll be ready to go again.”
More information and future announcements can be found on the Railway Restoration Project 113’s website.
Around 1930, P&R Coal & Iron built two large consolidted breakers, one at Locust Summit, the other at St. Nicholas with both along R. Co. track between Tamaqua and Shamokin. In 1955, as CNJ slowly dieselized (starting in 1925) C&I bought big 0-6-0 113 for the Locust Summit breaker.
Locust Summit closed in the 1950’s; St. Nick in the 1960’s. P&R built a new St. Nick (II) breaker in Minersville (where anthracite is still being mined) and 113 is there,
Note: Reading Company Corporation sold subsidiary P&R C&I in 1955, then merged subsidiary P&R Railroad into R. Co. Which is why the railroad became “Reading Company.”
Correction: R.Co. sold P&R C&I in 1925 by Federal Court Order
Correction: Reading Company sold P&R C&I in 1925, not 1955. Likewise P&R Railroad merged into Reading Company at the same time.
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