Reading Company 0-4-0 Camelback #1187
This A-4 Class was built for the P&R (Philadelphia and Reading Company) in March of 1903. There were twenty locomotives in all, numbering 1187 to 1200 inclusive, 1240 and 1246 to 1250. Originally this engine had a four wheel sloping-back tender but the entire class was later replaced with larger tenders #1187 represents the only surviving Reading camelback type engine. The engine was sold in 1946 to the E&G Brooke Iron Company in Birdsboro, PA, where it was renumbered to #4. It was later sold to the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company in 1952. It was the last Camelback in ICC service. In 1962, the Strasburg Rail Road purchased the engine, numbered it as SRC #4, and operated the engine until May of 1967. While out of service, Strasburg loaned it to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania for display at the Museum where it sat outdoors. It was brought back to Strasburg in 2004 where it sits disassembled pending a possible future restoration.
