Southern Railway 630
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Southern Railway 630, in operation, posing at Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum's Grand Junction Station. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Southern Railway 630 (commonly referred to as Southern 630) is a 2-8-0 Consolidation type steam locomotive built in 1904 by the Richmond Works of the American Locomotive Company for the Southern Railway as a member of the Ks-1 Consolidation class.[1]
History
630 was put into local and branch line service in Knoxville, Tennessee by Southern Railway and moved to Asheville, North Carolina to run on the Murphy Branch until it was retired in 1952. It was later purchased by the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad and renumbered to 207. In 1967, the locomotive was traded back to the Southern for use in their steam excursion program and restored to its former identity. Southern 630 pulled many excursion trains for Southern until replaced by larger steam engines to pull the longer and heavier excursion trains in 1978. After that, she was donated to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum to pull light passenger trains until being retired in 1989.[2]
1999-Present
Shortly thereafter, 630 entered the TVRM's restoration shop (now Soule Shops) and underwent a thorough twelve-year restoration. One of the most thorough restorations performed on a steam locomotive in the U.S. in recent years, it included frame work and complete running gear overhaul. In addition, 630 was given a new tender that was Southern Railway 4501's old one. The locomotive returned to regular service in March 2011 and is participating in the 21st Century Steam program instituted by Norfolk Southern.
The locomotive has toured several eastern states between 2012 and 2014 for this program such as Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and of course West Virginia.
Locomotive whistles
630 would always get different type of whistles swapped out such as the Central of Georgia 6 chime and the Southern 3 chime steamboat. It also wore one of the N&W J Class Hancock 3 chime steamboat whistle when 630 pulled an excursion from Roanoke, Virginia to Lynchburg, Virginia in March 16, 2013.
References
- Ferrell, Mallory Hope (1991). Tweetsie Country. Johnson City, TN: The Overmountain Press. ISBN 0-932807-58-5.
- Tillotson, Curt, Jr. (2005). Southern Railway Steam Trains, Volume 2 - Freight. Forest, VA: TLC Publishing Inc. ISBN 0-9766201-5-4.
External links
- SOU 630 in Revenue Service Southern Railfan
| Passenger Locomotives |
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| Freight and Switching Locomotives |
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