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Southern Railway 2-8-0 No. 630 sidelined with bearing issues
wasn’t that the locomotive pulling the passenger car train a few days ago out of roanoke at about 9:30 in the morning
The 630 is owned by the Tennesee Valley Railroad Museum, and they raised the funds for its restoration. The 4501 is also owned by the TVRM, while the 611 and I believe the 1218 are owned by the VA Museum of Transporation. I’m sure NS is reimbursing the TVRM when it uses the 630 on one of its specials, but they didn’t pay for the entire rebuild. NS is renting the the 630 because the 630 is currently in service, and the other engines are not.
As a member of the Friends of the RR Museum of PA, I can tell you Norfolk Southern has been VERY supportive of rail preservation. They have gone out their way repeatedly to help us out. But their available funds are not without limits.
The 611 and 1218 have been cosmetically restored, but they will need complete overhauls to recertify their boilers with the FRA. Such is the way steam locomotives. The rebuild of the 4501 will be completed only when they can raise the necessary funds.
If someone has an extra million bucks in their pocket they would like to donate towards restoring one of these engines, I’m sure the museums would be quite receptive, and NS would be willing to give them a place to stretch their legs.
Why not pull the 1401 from the Smithsonian and make it ready for road service. Now that would really be a draw for public attention. I guess I can only dream!!!
You know, there is an engine that could have handled all of this work and would have handled the heat and draw bar power as well …anyone would like to guess the locomotive? 611 why in the world is NS Corp using yard engine and local freight to pull such a heavy load? Just dumbfounds me why. Nothing at all againist the 630 but you have access to a beautiful engine. Just do not understand where the thinking was at.
She has put on an awesome show thus far. Hopefully they can get her fixed up and back on the road soon. The talented people at TVRM will work it out. I have faith!
It was indeed the last driving wheelset still being lubricated by block grease. Repairs are underway in Roanoke and Chattanooga but it is too soon to project a return to service.
Once again Norfolk Southern has not used it’s resources to the best of their ability. Southern 630 is a perfect locomotive for it’s job at TVRM and is an all around great little locomotive. But, for these highly anticipated and highly attended events a larger locomotive is needed. They have picked one of the best choices in Nickel Plate Road 765 in the northern part of the system. But, for steam operations in the south they will need a larger locomotive such as N&W 611, N&W 1218, S&A 750, or Southern 4501 which is currently being restored to operating condition. That is my opinion but I know that Norfolk Southern is doing all that they can at the moment.
The reason that the railroad used the was that it was already under restoration. Getting the 611 or 1218 working would take additional time and qould require the locomotives to be based someplace other than Roanoke (which may or may not be politically feasible). Remember that when the original program was terminated, 1218 was in the middle of a teardown.
NSC committed steam locamotive suicide years ago when it put the “big” engines in the museum and sold off the shops. There will be problems with the oldsters in spite of the best efforts to keep them in service. NSC needs to bite the bullet (no pun intended) and restore the 611 to service.
NSC committed steam locamotive suicide years ago when it put the “big” engines in the museum and sold off the shops. There will be problems with the oldsters in spite of the best efforts to keep them in service. NSC needs to bite the bullet (no pun intended) and restore the 611 to service.
I certainly have to question NS using 630 in main line service when 611 is cooling her heels. Has anyone heard the logic behind this?
611 611 611…i think thats all people can say. I’m quite happy that the 630 is out and about. Its nice to see a new face in steam. Hell if you want to go bigger, get the New York Central engine out of St. Louis, or The Pennsy decapod out of New York. Or hey, i know, lets get the Y6 out of St louis and run a mile long, 20 mph passenger train…now thats what i wanna see. If you’re gonna spend a million plus, get something different out on the road, something we haven’t seen…just sayin