Railfanning Oaks, PA

My job took me to the Philadelphia area last weekend, and as part of this I drove out to the small town of Oaks, PA. Oaks is about six miles straight west of Norristown and lies on the edge of suburbia. Once I got there, I discovered some interesting railroad-related relics. It turns out that Oaks was once the southern end of the Perkiomen Railroad (later a branch of the Reading) that ran from a junction with the Pennsy at Oaks up the Perkiomen Valley to Allentown. The railroad is now gone, the right-of-way through Oaks replaced by a road called "Station Avenue" that was put in so recently that Mapquest doesn't know it exists, but the 1918 depot is still there. And out front is a bizarre little critter right out of Flash Gordon.

After a bit of research, I've come to the conclusion that this 3' gauge Vulcan (the name is cast into the back of the frame) gas-electric was built for the 1939 World's Fair in New York, along with a few identical siblings. It later made its way to the Kennywood amusement park and was sold by them about a year ago. Weird stuff! Further down Station Avenue is a piece of disconnected track perhaps 100' long with an 0-4-0T, a small four-wheel Whitcomb, a 44-tonner and a speeder. The first two are shown below; the tank engine, according to www.steamlocomotive.info, is Worcester County Electric #1, formerly in the Steamtown collection. I have no idea about the Whitcomb. These pieces of equipment seem to be essentially derelict. Sorry for the poor photo quality; I didn't have my camera with me so these photos were taken with my cell phone.