History

Reading 903 was one of the first six FP7s ordered by the railroad in March 1950 to replace passenger steam locomotive

Steam locomotive

A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...

s. It and sister Reading 902

Reading 902

-History:Reading 902 was one of the first six FP7s ordered by the railroad in March 1950 to replace passenger steam locomotives. It and sister Reading 903 were completed on June 1 of that year and delivered to the Reading via the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The pair pulled their first train on...

 were completed on June the 1st of that year and delivered to the Reading via the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was one of the oldest railroads in the United States and the first common carrier railroad. It came into being mostly because the city of Baltimore wanted to compete with the newly constructed Erie Canal and another canal being proposed by Pennsylvania, which...

. The pair pulled their first train on June 6. In the following years, the two locomotives sometimes worked together, and sometimes were split, depending on the size of their trains.

SEPTA inherited the units in 1974, and they were renumbered by the new Consolidated Rail Corporation

Consolidated Rail Corporation

The Consolidated Rail Corporation, commonly known as Conrail , was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeast U.S. between 1976 and 1999. The federal government created it to take over the potentially profitable lines of bankrupt carriers, including the Penn Central Transportation Company and...

 in 1976, the 903 becoming 4373. It was the first FP7 to receive SEPTA paint in February 1978. During the SEPTA years, the FP7s usually operated in push-pull. SEPTA ceased all diesel-operations in 1981, and the locomotives were retired.

Locomotive 903 was purchased by the Philadelphia Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society

National Railway Historical Society

The National Railway Historical Society is a non-profit organization established in 1935 in the United States to promote interest in, and appreciation for, the historical development of railroads. It is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and organized into 16 regions and...

 (NRHS) in September 1983 and was stored at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania

Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania

The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania is a railroad museum in Strasburg, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.The museum is located on the east side of Strasburg along Pennsylvania Route 741...

 along with its sister, the 902, which was owned by the Lancaster

Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Lancaster is a city in the south-central part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the county seat of Lancaster County and one of the older inland cities in the United States, . With a population of 59,322, it ranks eighth in population among Pennsylvania's cities...

 Chapter of the NRHS. Restoration on the two began in 1986 and was completed in 1995.

Locomotives 903 and 902 (now owned by the Reading Technical and Historical Society) operated an excursion on an ex-Reading line owned by Penn Eastern Rail Lines in October of that year, but no more trips are planned for 2008.