By Justin Franz 

After a month-long journey from Oregon, Nickel Plate Road Alco PA-4 190 arrived at its new home in Pennsylvania on Friday.

On Friday morning, the historic streamlined locomotive was sitting at Norfolk Southern’s Taylor Yard just south of Scranton awaiting interchange with its new owner, Genesee Valley Transportation’s Delaware-Lackawanna. The interchange run was expected to take place in the afternoon with the locomotive arriving at Steamtown National Historic Site at approximately 5:30 p.m. The locomotive will be on display at Steamtown for a few weeks. 

GVT shook the rail preservation world earlier this year when it announced that it had purchased the PA from preservationist Doyle McCormack who restored the locomotive to near-operating condition in Portland, Ore., over the last 20 years. The locomotive departed Portland in late April and headed east on BNSF Railway and Montana Rail Link to Kansas City, where it was interchanged with Norfolk Southern. Over the last week or two it’s slowly made its way to Pennsylvania, and at one point even hit “home” rails in Ohio. 

Nickel Plate Road 190 on “home” rails crossing the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio, on May 15, 2023. Photo by Joseph Zadeh.

While 190 is painted for the Nickel Plate Road — McCormack’s childhood favorite — it was built for Santa Fe and became famous as one of four Alco PA’s owned by the Delaware & Hudson in the 1970s. The four locomotives were later sent to Mexico, where two remain in a museum. A fourth is at the Museum of the American Railroad in Frisco, Tex., being restored cosmetically. 

GVT was providing a public viewing area on the north side of the Steamtown yard, just southwest of the Scranton bus station. The railroad was encouraging people to park at the Steamtown Mall. Visit GVT’s Facebook page for more information.