Railway Restoration Project 113

Located northeast of Harrisburg and southwest of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, along Pa. Route 901 you'll find the borough of Minersville. The surrounding region, rich with anthracite coal deposits, had rail service from the Reading Company, a railroad with ties to the Central of New Jersey. (The Pennsylvania Railroad also came to town in the old days, as did the Lehigh Valley.) Along the old Reading sits a depot, now owned by the Reading & Northern Railroad, along with one of only two surviving CNJ steam engines. Number 113, a large 0-6-0, has been restored to operation by dedicated volunteers working under the banner of Railway Restoration Project 113, with Robert E. Kimmel, Jr., as president of the group. The last CNJ steam engine to operate, for Reading Anthracite Company, #113 retired for good in January 1960. (The last CNJ steam to run on the CNJ railroad itself was camelback #774, on September 25, 1955, as part of a railfan excursion from Jersey City, N.J., to Jim Thorpe. A fan favorite, #774 nonetheless did not escape the scrapper's torch.) After sitting in the weeds in Locust Summit for some years after last operating, #113 got donated to Historic Red Clay Valley, Inc., a group with ties to the Wilmington and Western Railroad, in Delaware. Bob Kimmel, Sr., bought the engine in June of 1986 and moved her to Minersville in February, of 1991; restoration efforts began in 1999, with a complete teardown of everything above the running gear. A lot of time and money later, the engine now runs again in Anthracite Country!