1972 (revenue service) December 2010 (1st excursion service)
Restored
1990
Current owner
Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum
Disposition
Stored, awaiting overhaul
Tennessee Valley Railroad No. 610 is a preserved S160 Class 2-8-0 "Consolidation" type steam locomotive built by the Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton Corporation for the U.S. Army in March 1952. It is one of the last steam locomotives built for service in the United States and the last new steam locomotive acquired by the U.S. Army. As of 2023, No. 610 is owned by the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum.
No. 610 was the very last steam locomotive to be built by Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton for an American customer, being built in March 1952.[1][2] By the end of the 1950s, No. 610 was one of eight steam locomotives owned by the U.S. Army railroad and was used to train military soldiers in railroad operation and maintenance.[1] It also operated on the 31-mile long Fort Eustis Military Railroad to an interchange with the U.S. railroad at a junction in Lee Hall, Virginia.[1]
When the Fort Eustis Military Railroad decommissioned steam operations in 1972, No. 610 was obtained by the Wiregrass Heritage Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society (NRHS) of Dothan, Alabama.[1] In 1978, the locomotive was donated to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum (TVRM) of Chattanooga, Tennessee, where it was put into storage for the next nine years. In 1987, it was pulled from storage to be restored to operational condition. TVRM crews opted to abandon No. 610's U.S. Army livery and modify it with a taller cab and a taller smokestack to improve its cosmetic appearance.[2] Restoration work lasted for three years before it was completed in 1990, and No. 610 became the TVRM's regular service locomotive for the remainder of that year's operating season.[2]
In August that same year, No. 610 was leased by the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) to replace Norfolk and Western 1218 on two mainline excursions between Huntsville, Alabama and Chattanooga, and it was assisted by two NS diesel locomotives.[3] No. 610 was subsequently used sparingly to pull NS' mainline excursions, before the railroad discontinued the steam program in 1994.[3][4][5]
No. 610 continued to pull the TVRM's yearly excursion trains, until it was taken out of service for its Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) mandated 1,472-day inspection in December 2010.[1] In 2018, No. 610 was moved to the TVRM's Soule Shops, where it currently awaits a major overhaul.[6] As of 2023, the restoration progress is put on hold until further notice.[6]
^ abcde"Biz NS: Sept/Oct'11"(PDF). BizNS. Norfolk Southern. September–October 2011. Archived from the original(PDF) on February 28, 2013. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
^ abcBoyd, Jim (November 1990). "Tennessee Transformation". Railfan & Railroad. Carstens Publishing. p. 84.
^ ab"610 Moves into Soule Shops"(PDF). Smoke & Cinders. Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. 2018. p. 3. Archived from the original(PDF) on June 20, 2021. Retrieved June 20, 2021.
