The last K-4

#3750, one of two remaining Pennsy K-4 Pacifics. (Stored unserviceable at Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.) (Photo by BobbaLew.)

The last steam-locomotive I saw up close was a rusty Pennsy K-4 Pacific (4-6-2) on a race-track train. It was 1956; I was 12 years old.
I’m a railfan. and have been since age-2.
In south Jersey our family lived near a horse-race venue named Garden State Park. New Jersey calls itself the Garden-State.
Garden State Park drew most of its patrons from PA, which was rather puritanical at that time. Liquor was only available at State Stores, so south Jersey had liquor-stores galore.
Pennsylvanians returning from the Jersey seashore could stop and load up.
Garden State Park was adjacent to a line the Pennsylvania Railroad built just before the turn of the century. It connected to Pennsy’s Camden & Atlantic in Haddonfield.
From there it went northwest to Delair Bridge, Pennsy’s crossing of the Delaware River, opened in 1896.
Delair Bridge was the first Delaware River crossing from Philadelphia.
The line in effect bypassed Camden, NJ, which had become a bottleneck.
Camden was originally accessible only by ferry — from Philadelphia.
Camden became congested. Yard after yard was built.
The new line was meant to bypass Camden, and was originally intended to go south of Haddonfield. But that line was never built, and south Jersey freight eventually fell to trucking.
But the new line gave Pennsy a river-crossing that bypassed Camden, and eventually ended ferry-service.
That ferry-service became all Pennsy — it ended in 1952. Which means I rode those ferries.
Pennsylvanians could railroad direct to the seashore, without ferries. The railroad also served two horse-race tracks, Garden State, and one near Atlantic City.
Camden & Atlantic went to Atlantic City; the railroad was the main reason Atlantic City was founded.
Atlantic City became so popular a second railroad was built between Camden and Atlantic City; Atlantic City Railroad, a Reading (“REDD-ing;” not “REED-ing”) Railroad subsidiary. Reading and Pennsy used to hold races to see who could get to Atlantic City fastest. 100 mph or more!
For some reason I peddled my bicycle up to where Pennsy’s line crossed four-lane Marlton Pike on a girder overpass. Marlton Pike was the main east-west road through our town.
Marlton Pike was how one got to Garden State Park, which was on the north side of the highway.
When I got to the overpass, I noticed a K-4 simmering next to the race-track.
I peddled as close as I could, which was in the vast parking-lot across the railroad from the race-track. The K-4 was at least 100 yards away.
Obviously the crew was inside betting on the horses, but had to come out before the last race to fire up the K-4.
The last race was at 5 o’clock, and the train left at 6. Back to Philadelphia.
Hanging around would get me home late for supper, risking hellfire and damnation. My parents were tub-thumping Christian zealots, firm believers in “spare the rod and spoil the child.”
I weighed this knowing this might be the last steam-engine I’d ever see.
I stayed, knowing I might get beaten when I returned home.
I watched the train leave, impressed with how quick the chuffs were.
Amazingly, nothing happened.
Nothing but deafening silence when I returned.
I didn’t even have to explain anything.
Actually that K-4 wasn’t the last steam-locomotive I ever saw.

Tri-Pacer.

That was from a Piper Tri-Pacer at 1,000 feet. We were flying over Pennsy’s Camden & Atlantic.
It looked like a Mikado (2-8-2), but was probably a Consolidation (2-8-0), what Pennsy used on Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines to deliver freight out its line.

• “Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines” (PRSL) is an amalgamation of Pennsylvania and Reading railroad-lines in south Jersey to counter the fact the two railroads had too much parallel track. It was promulgated in 1933. It serviced mainly the south Jersey seashore from Philadelphia. —I’m a railfan because of PRSL.