On Sunday, October 1st, 2023, Reading and Northern #2102 hauled its first fall foliage train out of Reading for the 2023 season. During the layover in Jim Thorpe, the train was spun on the wye as normal in preparation for the return trip, however, 2102 shoved the consist toward Jim Thorpe Jct. and traversed over the Nesquehoning Bridge to River Jct, which is the opposite direction it typically travels and made an excellent shot going over the Lehigh River (thumbnail). The reason for this change was due to the increased rail traffic from multiple fall foliage trains running simultaneously, as you see in the first shot with the Lehigh Gorge Scenic train returning to Jim Thorpe as 2102 shoved out on the other leg of the wye. Hopefully, they do this move again, as it would look even better with a bunch of fall leaves in the background!

Additionally, when 2102 returned to Port Clinton on the southbound portion of the trip, it met the NRFF with the BM&R painted #1983 leading. This made for an excellent show of 2102 thundering out past 1983, and then 1983 getting track clearance to continue north.

A complete fall foliage chase video of 2102 will be coming later in October, however, I wanted to make this its own separate video as I thought they were two super awesome moments from yesterday that I could not wait to share! I hope you enjoy them too!!

0:00 Intro
0:46 LGSR returning through River Jct. to Jim Thorpe; once it passes 2102 can be seen shoving the OSJT toward Jim Thorpe Jct. in the distance
2:09 #2102 pulls its consist over Nesquehoning Bridge toward River Jct.
4:19 #2102 shoved back to Jim Thorpe
6:39 Later in the day, #2102 returns to Port Clinton
8:52 NRFF with #1983 on the point arrives
9:49 #2102 departs Port Clinton
12:00 NRFF receives track clearance north and departs Port Clinton
13:50 Outro

Music in this video:
Song: Straight Fuse
Artist: French Fuse
Licensed to YouTube by: YouTube Audio Library