Reading Railroad No. 2100 is a 4-8-4 "Northern" type steam locomotive, originally built as No. 2045, an I10sa 2-8-0 "Consolidation" type locomotive, by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in May 1923, and rebuilt to its present form at the Reading Shops in 1945. As such, 2100 became the first T-1 in service, as well as the prototype T-1 that was built.
Origins as a Consolidation - History[]
Reading 2100 is a preserved 4-8-4 "Northern" type steam locomotive that began life as a 2-8-0 “Consolidation” type. It was originally built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in May 1923 as part of the Reading Company’s I-10a class of heavy freight engines and was numbered 2045. It spent the first two decades of its life hauling heavy freight across the Reading system.
On September 6, 1945, Reading No. 2045 became the first of thirty I-10a locomotives to be rebuilt at the Reading Company’s own shops into the modernized T-1 class 4-8-4 Northerns. Renumbered as No. 2100, the locomotive was upgraded with a new frame, boiler, trailing truck, and modern appliances, giving it both greater hauling capacity and faster speeds. It was then assigned to haul heavy coal and freight trains across Pennsylvania and New Jersey. No. 2100 remained in freight service until the railroad transitioned to diesels in the early 1950s. Although the locomotive was retired in 1954, a temporary traffic surge in 1956 saw some of the T-1s briefly reactivated before being permanently withdrawn from service by 1957.
In 1959, Reading launched the Iron Horse Rambles, a public excursion program designed to showcase its powerful T-1s. No. 2100 joined the excursion pool in 1961 alongside Nos. 2124 and 2102. The T-1s hauled thousands of passengers across the Northeast to locations like Gettysburg, Philadelphia, Shamokin, and Wilmington. In August 1964, 2100 operated on Baltimore and Ohio tracks between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., as part of B&O’s Iron Horse Days event. The last Iron Horse Ramble took place on October 17, 1964, and No. 2100 returned to storage.
In 1965—or possibly 1967, according to some sources—No. 2100, along with fellow T-1 No. 2101. 1 and 2102 and 0-6-0 No. 1251, was sold to Striegel Supply and Equipment, a scrapyard in Baltimore, Maryland. No. 1251 would later find preservation at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. No. 2100 sat untouched in the scrapyard until 1975, when it was purchased by rail enthusiast and excursion promoter Ross E. Rowland Jr. His main goal was to restore No. 2101 for use on the American Freedom Train, and 2100 was acquired primarily as a parts source.
From 1975 through 1987, No. 2100 remained in storage in Hagerstown, Maryland. In 1987, ownership transferred to a new group called the 2100 Corporation, led by Lionel Trains CEO Richard Kughn, and including Rowland and Bill Benson. A major overhaul began, costing over $1 million, with the goal of returning the locomotive to excursion service. After its 1988 restoration, 2100 was broken in on the Winchester & Western Railroad, and then moved under steam (without main rods installed) to Pittsburgh’s Wheeling and Lake Erie (W&LE) Rook Yard, where its rods were reinstalled and it ran under its own power to the W&LE shops in Brewster, Ohio.
Despite its restored condition, no railroad was willing to host such a large locomotive for regular excursions. It remained stored at Brewster until the 2100 Corporation donated it to the Portage Ohio Regional Transportation Authority (PORTA), which hoped to operate excursions out of the Cleveland area. Those plans also failed, and PORTA stored the engine at the Ohio Central Railroad’s shops in Coshocton, Ohio, where it remained until 1998.
On January 16, 1998, No. 2100 was sold at auction to Canadian entrepreneur Thomas Payne, chairman of RailLink Ltd. In the last week of May, 2100 was successfully test-fired at Ohio Central and later moved to the Elgin County Railway Museum in St. Thomas, Ontario. There, Payne planned to convert the locomotive from coal to oil firing and use it in a high-end Canadian excursion service through the Rockies, using twelve stainless steel passenger cars and an auxiliary tender he had purchased. Though the conversion to oil firing was completed, the logistics of operating such a large locomotive out of St. Thomas proved too difficult, and the locomotive was again placed in storage.
In June 2005, No. 2100 was sold to the Golden Pacific Railroad in Tacoma, Washington, where it operated limited sightseeing excursions on Tacoma Rail’s former Milwaukee Road lines during 2006. In 2007, 2100 traveled under its own power to Richland, Washington, where Payne hoped to operate it on the Tri-City & Olympia Railroad. However, those plans never came to fruition. The locomotive was stored outdoors at WHECO Siding in Richland, and by 2009, ownership had quietly changed hands again.
In April 2015, No. 2100 was acquired by the American Steam Railroad Preservation Association (ASR), which arranged for the engine and tender to be moved to the former B&O Clark Avenue Roundhouse in Cleveland, Ohio. ASR launched the Fire Up 2100 campaign to fund the restoration, estimating the total cost at $700,000. Over the next several years, ASR focused on restoring the running gear, tender, and boiler. In 2023, ASR partnered with FMW Solutions to convert the locomotive to burn recycled oil, improving fuel logistics, reducing emissions, and making the locomotive more appealing to modern railroads.
By early 2024, 2100’s boiler passed its FRA hydrostatic test, and by January 2025, the oil-burning firebox conversion was completed. On April 3, 2025, No. 2100 was successfully test-fired, marking its first return to live steam since the late 2000s.
Looking toward the future, ASR plans to repaint No. 2100 in the patriotic American Freedom Train (AFT) colors and renumber it as AFT No. 250 in celebration of the United States Sestercentennial in 2026. After more than a century of hard freight service, public excursions, storage, multiple ownership changes, and major overhauls, Reading 2100 is poised to steam once again—reborn for a new generation of railroad enthusiasts.
Trivia[]
- Reading 2100 is one of 30 I-10 class 2-8-0 Consolidation locomotives that were rebuilt into powerful T-1 class 4-8-4 Northerns by the Reading Company’s own shops in 1945. These rebuilds were entirely in-house and gave the railroad a fleet of fast, modern dual-service locomotives without needing to purchase new engines during tight postwar budgets.
- From 1959 to 1964, No. 2100 pulled numerous Iron Horse Rambles excursion trains across the Reading system, rekindling public interest in steam railroading. Notably, in October 1962, 2100 double-headed one of these excursions with sister engine Reading No. 2102, offering a dramatic display of steam power at its finest.
- After being sold for scrap in the mid-1960s, 2100 was rescued multiple times by private owners and organizations, traveling across the U.S. and Canada. It was converted to burn oil in the late 1990s and later adapted to run on recycled vegetable oil during its modern restoration.
- As of 2025, 2100's restoration is nearing completion under the care of the American Steam Railroad Preservation Association in Cleveland, Ohio. To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the locomotive has been temporarily renumbered as Reading 250, with plans to unveil a special commemorative paint scheme and participate in celebratory excursions throughout 2026.