The last surviving, intact diesel from the Lehigh & New England Railroad has been acquired by the non-profit Railroad & Industrial Preservation Society Inc., and will be restored to operating condition.
L&NE No. 611, an S2 built by Alco in 1948, helped make the Lehigh & New England one of the nation’s first fully dieselized railroad. It later worked for Ford Motor Co. at its River Rouge steel mill and for a grain mill in Emporia, Ind., before being returned to Pennsylvania in 2016 by the Lehigh & New England Preservation Society and the Lehigh Valley Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. It is currently at the Allentown & Auburn, a 4.4-mile line between Kutztown and Topton, Pa., on the former Reading Allentown Branch.
Railroad & Industrial Preservation completed acquisition of the locomotive on Oct. 31, the 60th anniversary of the abandonment of most of the L&NE. The organization is seeking to raise $150,000 to return to the locomotive to service and provide for proper stewardship once it is operable. The organization projects restoration will be completed within 36 months. Information on donating and volunteering opportunities is available at the organization’s website.
“The previous efforts of the Lehigh & New England Preservation Society and the Lehigh Valley Chapter of the NHRS to rescue No. 611 made her future preservation possible,” Railroad & Industrial Preservation Marketing Lead Robert John Davis said in a press release. “We are grateful for all the work that has already been done to save No. 611 and are honored to be the next stewards of this historic locomotive.”
