It’s a big day for fans of the American Locomotive Company. On June 23, Delaware-Lackawanna announced that it had completed the operational restoration of its Alco PA — the only operating one in the world — and that it had repainted one of its RS-3s into the iconic lighting stripe livery of the Delaware & Hudson. 

RS-3 4068 was painted last week at DL’s Scranton, Pa., shop, and the engine made its public debut on Monday morning. The locomotive was built in March 1952 for the D&H. In the 1970s, it was sold to the Lamoille Valley Railroad in Vermont, where it became that railroad’s 7801. In the 1990s, the locomotive was briefly used by the New Hampshire Central before being sold to the York-Durham Heritage Railway in Canada. Eventually, the locomotive made its way to the DL, one of the last Alco strongholds in North America. For years, it sported D&H’s original black and yellow livery, alongside two other RS-3s, numbers 4103 and 4118. Those units were sold in 2024 to the Saratoga, Corinth & Hudson Railway. 

The DL operates on several county-owned rail lines in Northeastern Pennsylvania, including the former D&H line to Carbondale, Pa.

Restored Delaware & Hudson 4068 at GVT’s Von Storch Shops in Green Ridge, Pa. —Photo by M. Otto Vondrak 

Posed alongside 4068 on Monday morning was “Nickel Plate Road” PA-4 190, which the DL had acquired from preservationist Doyle McCormack back in 2023. The engine was originally built for the Santa Fe, gained notoriety on the D&H in the 1970s, before being sold to Mexico. In the 2000s, McCormack brought the engine back north and restored it as a Nickel Plate Road locomotive (his favorite railroad growing up). Since acquiring it, the DL has been completing the operational restoration that McCormack began. 

On Monday morning, DL officials said the engine would make its debut in passenger service on July 11 and 12 (tickets by invitation only), with McCormack at the throttle. Additional public excursions are planned for later in the year. 

—Justin Franz and Otto Vondrak