I caught #17, the "York", steaming into New Freedom, PA. The engine is part of Steam into History, which operates a Civil War themed heritage railroad over ten miles of Northern Central Railway tracks between New Freedom and Hanover Junction, PA. It hauls a 2½ hour return excursion from New Freedom to Hanover Junction, and a 1 hour return trip from New Freedom to Glen Rock, PA.
#17 is a reproduction of an American type (4-4-0) locomotive, a type common on North American railroads in the mid to late 19th Century. It was custom built by the Kloke Locomotive Works between 2010 and 2013 to designs based on O’Connor Engineering blueprints for the replica Union Pacific #119 and Central Pacific “Jupiter”, both of which currently operate at the Golden Spike National Historic Site in Utah (you can see photos of them on the Golden Spike NHS page of this website).
David H. Kloke, owner of Kloke Construction and Kloke Locomotive Works, started in construction work in Wisconsin during the 1970s. He moved to Illinois twenty years ago and set up shop in Elgin, where he also built another 4-4-0, the “Leviathan” #63.
Steam Into History opened on 1st June 2013.
#17 is liveried in North Central Railway colours. Construction started on the original Northern Central from Baltimore, MD, in 1829, the line finally reaching north along the Susquehanna River to Sunbury, PA, in 1858. In 1861, the line came under the control of the Pennsylvania Railroad and operated as a subsidiary of the Pennsy until much of its Maryland trackage was washed out by Hurricane Agnes in 1972. Most of its operations then ceased as the Penn Central declined to repair sections of the line.
