1980s Throwback! Reading & Northern Switchers Pull a Coal Train - Yard Job Shifting & Kicking Cars

We follow around Reading & Northern's YJNR (Yard Job North Reading) doing miscellaneous switching duties and heading to customers. But on one day in 2023, a trio of end cab switchers left the yard to grab a coal train and take it down the mainline, a throwback to a different era of railroading once common in this part of Pennsylvania.

EMD SW variants and MP15DC locomotives were a mainstay in the anthracite coal region during the days of the Reading Railroad in the 70s and up into Conrail the decade later. By the end of the 80s, Conrail wanted out of the business and Andy Muller took over the territory in the 90s, building up the Reading & Northern system to the over 400 miles in northeastern PA.

Today, it's somewhat a rarity on any railroad to see end cab switchers hauling big trains down a mainline as this type of motive power is generally assigned to local switching duties, so I hope you enjoy this catch and the other scenes included of YJNR over the years.