Reading 1187 is a camelback 0-4-0 switcher locomotive built in 1903 by Baldwin for the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. It was primarily used for yard switching services, until 1946, when it was sold to the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company's E&G Brooke Plant as No. 4. In 1962, it made its way to the Strasburg Rail Road in Strasburg, Pennsylvania to be used in hauling tourist trains, but due to its small size, it was reassigned to switching passenger cars. After being removed from service in 1967, 1187 sat on display at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, before sitting idle at the Strasburg yard. In 2020, it was acquired by the Age of Steam Roundhouse, who is currently giving the locomotive a cosmetic stabilization at their location in Sugarcreek, Ohio.
Reading No. 1187 on static display on the turntable at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg, Pennsylvania, in 1996
No. 4 on static display at the East Strasburg Station on July 19, 1984
No. 1187 stripped off in the Strasburg Rail Road yard siding in late 2013
A camelback locomotive is a type of steam locomotive with the driving cab placed in the middle, astride the boiler. Camelbacks were fitted with wide fireboxes which would have severely restricted driver visibility from the normal cab location at the rear.
The Erie Railroad's L-1 class were the largest camelbacks built, and the only articulated examples.
A 4-6-0 camel built by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in 1869, housed at the National Museum of Transportation
A 4-8-0 camel, (probably the very first 4-8-0) Centipede as built in 1855 (below), and as modified for the B&O Railroad in 1864 (above). Note the sloping firebox.
A 4-6-0 camelback built for the Central Railroad of New Jersey by the Baldwin Locomotive Works
