Description
If you carry a machete, and chop through a few layers of invasive vines, you might find this lost locomotive hidden deep in an abandoned lot not far from Philadelphia.
Number 8746 was a Pennsylvania Railroad model RS3 locomotive, It was built by the American Locomotive company in Schenectady, New York, back in June of 1952. After decades of hauling freight it was sold to Amtrak, which kept it busy powering work trains along the Northeast Corridor.
Most locomotives are sent off to the scrap yard after twenty to thirty years of use. 8746 was instead sold to a historic preservation group. At some point this group decided the parts found within it would be far more useful in the restoration of other Alco locomotives—different models that where few examples were preserved. When they vacated this property, they left this locomotive behind.
Today, only this gutted shell remains, hidden under an ever increasing growth of foliage, on a strip of disconnected track. It’s an uncommon demise for a locomotive model popular with museums and tourist train operators.
While the dense vines and trees limited my photography options, it lent itself well to for use of some rare, vintage infrared 35mm film. This photo was created using a simple Canon AE1 camera, the expired Infrared Film, and a #12 yellow light filters.
