#1600

Pennsylvania Railroad’s E-6s Atlantic (4-4-2) #1600. (Photo by Jim Buckley.)

(This blog was written last month, but I never got a chance to publish it.)

—The July 2020 entry in my Tide-mark All-Pennsy color calendar is Pennsylvania Railroad’s E-6s Atlantic (4-4-2) #1600 ready for duty at Camden Engine Terminal in 1955.
By 1955 many railroads switched to diesel locomotion, but Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines (PRSL) still used hand-me-down steam-locomotives of its two co-owners, Pennsy and Reading.
By 1955 dieselization began on PRSL, but they still had steamers in use.
Which means I probably saw #1600. In fact, I may have ridden behind it.
That was 1949. My father took my sister and I on a train-ride, Haddonfield (NJ) to Philadelphia. Our locomotive was an E6 Atlantic.
I have recordings of E6 Atlantics, and the one I remember is #460, the “Lindbergh engine” (see footnote below). 460’s whistle was wonky and I remember hearing it as a child.
460 still exists. Pennsy saved it, and now it’s at Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg PA.
It’s cosmetically restored, and on display — inoperable.
The E6 Atlantic is not a powerhouse. It’s more a speedster.
Pennsy built 80 in 1914, and they were intended for lines without grades.
Their first stomping-grounds were what we now call the Northeast Corridor, Washington DC but only to New York City, not Boston. And the E6s couldn’t access Manhattan Island. Only north Jersey at first, and by 1914, Pennsy ran tunnels under the Hudson River with third-rail electric locomotives.
Smoky steamers would be impossible. Those “tubes” are 2.76 miles long.
The railroads that became the Northeast Corridor weren't electrified at first. The E6 Atlantics were designed for that service = flat-out speedsters on grade-less railroads.
The E6s ran all the way to Manhattan-Transfer across from New York City in north Jersey. Pennsy swapped out the E6s for DD1 third-rail electrics for “the tubes.”
“The tubes” remain in service, but need to be replaced. Pennsy switched to overhead power delivery, and eventually wired all the way to Washington.
Amtrak now owns and operates that line, and can run 120 mph or more where permitted.
The Northeast Corridor is now our country’s supposed “High Speed Rail.” Except there are twisting segments that can’t run high-speeds.
Zoo-Interlocking in Philadelphia is 40 mph railroad. And a lot more than Amtrak uses the Corridor. All the major cities have non-Amtrak commuter-service.
Everything has to fit a system laid out eons ago. And it’s not direct. The Corridor gets switched this-way-and-that, to connect lines laid out in the 1800s.
“The tubes” also have limited clearance. You can’t run freight through ‘em, or even double-deck passenger cars. If intended for “the tubes” the equipment has to fit “the tubes.”
To me the E6 Atlantics were the prettiest locomotives on PRSL.
Both the E6 Atlantics (4-4-2) and K4 Pacifics (4-6-2) have that same red Keystone number plate on the front of the smoke box, but most K4s got front-end modifications not used on the E6.
Many K4s moved the headlight atop the smokebox so the generator could be relocated to the smokebox front. A platform on the smokebox-front was added below to service that generator.
Many K4s replaced that gorgeous slatted pilot with a heavy cast-steel drop-coupler pilot.
The front ends of the E6 and K4 were identical at first. But later the “beauty-treatment” was done to most K4s. (Pennsy’s M1 “Mountains” [4-8-2] had the same “beauty-treatment.” I never saw an M1.)
I always looked for the red Keystone number plate as a child. That meant I’d see a gorgeous steam locomotive. Reading’s steamers, which PRSL also used, were ugly.
Only recently did I learn of the “beauty treatment.” I didn’t notice as a child. All Pennsy steamers were gorgeous. Their proportions and lines were much more attractive than Reading.
So here we have E6 Atlantic #1600, one of those “dirty old steam-engines,” per my mother.
I bet I saw it as a child, and got covered by cinders as it chuffed out of Haddonfield’s railroad-station.
“Oh, Bobby; you and those dirty old steam-engines” — SMACK!

• In 1927, when Charles Lindbergh solo-flew nonstop USA to Europe, the first to do so, he returned to Washington DC on the US Navy cruiser USS Memphis. At that time, before TV, newsreel footage was usually played as a preview in movie theaters. So the race was on to see who could get newsreel footage from Washington to New York City first. Most newsreel companies used airplanes, parachuting undeveloped newsreel footage into New York City. In New York it had to be developed and assembled before it could run in movie theaters. International News Reel Company took a different tack; namely to use a train, so as to develop the film enroute in a baggage-car converted into a darkroom. The engine used was E6 Atlantic #460, the last E6 built. Often well over 100 mph! International News Reel won! Their footage was in theaters first, and #460 still exists. A train got those newsreels to New York City theaters before the airplanes.
• “Haddonfield” (“ha-din-feeld”) was an old Revolutionary-War town in south Jersey near where I lived as a child.