It eventually became famous for pulling multiple mainline excursion trains throughout the state of Pennsylvania under the ownership of George Hart.

In the early 20th Century, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) purchased several classes of 4-6-0 "tenwheelers" for their locomotive fleet.

972 was retired from revenue service by the end of 1959, and it was subsequently stored in front of the Weston shops with several other steam locomotives in the form of a scrap line.

1286, another locomotive formerly operated by Hart, on a series of roundtrip excursion runs on the Western Maryland (WM) mainline between York, Williamsport, Hagerstown, and Cumberland.

However, that trip was also plagued by the poor condition of the trackage they rode on, and rain was downpouring across the states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey that day.

[9] The locomotive returned to the Strasburg Rail Road to pull a tourist train for the National Railway Historical Society (NRHS) in March 1979.

By the end of that year, however, the locomotive was removed from excursion service, since Hart's contract with the city of Jim Thorpe expired.

[12] With the locomotive now under their possession, the Strasburg Rail Road made plans to overhaul it, which included replacing its firebox with a Belpaire one.

972 is stored outdoors in the Strasburg Rail Road's yard with its cab, firebox, pilot truck, cowcatcher, smokebox door, and several other critical components detached.

[13] As a result of being used to pull heavy passenger trains with little overhauls along the way, the locomotive is going to require a complete rebuild with multiple replacement components in order to operate again.