Revenue service No. 610 was the first locomotive of the I-1A class, built and delivered to the T&P in June 1927, at a cost of $106,656.41. No. 610 was mostly assigned in revenue service to pull heavy long-distance freight trains on T&P's mainline between
Texarkana and
El Paso, and en route, the locomotive traveled through the cities of
Marshall,
Longview,
Dallas, Fort Worth,
Abilene,
Midland and
Odessa. In 1945, John Lancaster retired from the T&P, and William G. Vollmer succeeded him as president.
First retirement In January 1951, after Fort Worth city mayor F. Edgar Deen requested to Vollmer that the T&P preserve a steam locomotive, Vollmer had No. 610 withheld from scrapping and donated to
Amon G. Carter, a local publisher, art collector, and board chairman of the
Southwestern Exposition and Fat Stock Show. Carter then donated No. 610 to the Southwestern Exposition, and arrangements were made to relocate the I-1AR to the exposition grounds near the Will Rogers Memorial Coliseum, with the
Frisco Railway providing a spur line for the locomotive to enter the new display site. On January 27, No. 610 was put on static display at the show grounds, and a dedication ceremony was held in which the locomotive was named after humorist and commentator
Will Rogers. In 1955, No. 610 became the last remaining example of T&P's 2-10-4 fleet, since the rest of the 600 locomotives had been scrapped; I-1BR Class No. 638, which had been on static display at the
State Fair of Texas in Dallas since December 1949, was scrapped after being heavily vandalized. F. Edgar Deen also died in 1967. By 1968, both the Southwestern Exposition and Fat Stock Show and the city of Fort Worth had disavowed ownership of No. 610 as they were unable to maintain the locomotive. Fort Worth residents feared a repeat of No. 638's scrapping, and they launched a campaign for the city to donate No. 610 to a group of railfans and experts who would be able to keep the locomotive in good condition. In April 1969, the
Texas Christian University fraternity of
Phi Delta Theta began to redevelop their property alongside the Will Rogers Coliseum, and in doing so, they planned to rip up the spur line that connected No. 610's display site to the
national rail network. He and a group of fellow railfans negotiated with the city of Fort Worth to obtain ownership of No. 610 for a
token fee of $1, with the stipulation that it be moved out of the display site. No. 610 was subsequently moved to the Frisco Railway’s north side yards for temporary storage, and then it was moved again to the Fort Worth Army Depot. Dave Pearson sought to restore No. 610 to operating condition to pull excursion trains between Fort Worth and Dallas, and created a nonprofit organization called the 610 Historical Foundation to begin the project. The foundation launched a fundraising campaign to cover the initial estimated restoration cost of $10,000, and they began searching for steam locomotive experts for help. During the early-mid 1970s, the 610 Foundation struggled to raise the required funds. The 610 Foundation negotiated with the AFT Foundation to allow No. 610 to pull the
Freedom Train throughout Texas and possibly other parts of the southwestern United States, including
New Mexico and
Oklahoma. On February 16, 1975, No. 610 was moved to the
Fort Worth Stockyard Area, where the restoration process began the following month, with assistance from the Stockyards Area restoration committee. Pearson contracted Chicago-area railfan and steam locomotive mechanic Richard Jensen to lead the restoration process. Jensen had to acquire around 3,000 new custom-made parts to replace those on No. 610, while other parts of the locomotive were cleaned and refurbished. On October 2, the locomotive's boiler passed a state government-required hydrostatic test. The
Fort Worth and Denver Railway (FW&D) subsequently requested that No. 610 be fitted with liability insurance coverage, but the insurance cost was $10 million, and the 610 Foundation only held $2 million. The AFT Foundation quickly obtained the required coverage from their insurance brokers in California. On February 4, No. 610 performed its first test run on the FW&D mainline from Fort Worth to
Wichita Falls with an idling
EMD SD7, four boxcars, and a caboose, but en route, the locomotive broke down from one of its bearings near
Alvord, and repairs delayed its arrival in Wichita Falls by two hours. On February 7, No. 610 returned to Fort Worth while pulling a freight train with the estimated weight of the
Freedom Train, and the run occurred without incident. The AFT Foundation's plan for the Texas portion of the
Freedom Train tour was for No. 610 to travel to Odessa, where it would be swapped with
Southern Pacific No. 4449 at the lead of the train, but the swap was moved to
Austin at the last minute. On February 13, No. 610 travelled to Austin, and two days later, it was swapped with No. 4449 in front of the special train. On February 18, No. 610, with assistance from Bicentennial
GP18s Nos. 1776 and 1976, pulled the consist of MoPac's mainline from Austin to
Houston. Prior to the Austin-Houston journey, it was discovered that the locomotive's
brake shoes did not meet federal regulations, so brake shoes from the city of Austin's display locomotive,
Southern Pacific No. 786, were acquired and applied to the I-1AR. On February 25, No. 610 pulled the
Freedom Train on the Santa Fe mainline from Houston to Fort Worth, with assistance from Santa Fe Bicentennial
SD45-2 No. 5704, but the journey had been delayed by a long line of people touring the consist in Houston. On February 29, No. 610 pulled the
Freedom Train into Dallas. On March 5, the locomotive returned to Fort Worth again, and it was swapped back with No. 4449, which pulled the AFT northbound to Wichita Falls. No. 610 was unable to operate beyond the Texas schedule, since extensive repairs on its crown brasses were required.
Southern Railway excursion service Later in 1976, No. 4449, having swapped the
Freedom Train consist with
Reading 2101, hauled an excursion for the Southern Railway (SOU), which hosted their own steam excursion program at the time, on its way to reunite with the
Freedom Train at
Washington, D.C.. The AFT Foundation had to decline because they had already promised the
city of Portland that they would return the locomotive to
Oregon after the end of the tours. Doyle McCormack, who had been the engineer of Nos. 4449 and 610 during the AFT tours, suggested to SOU executives that they lease No. 610, instead. SOU steam program manager James A. Bistline, Master Mechanic Bill Purdie, and Don Purdie subsequently travelled to Fort Worth to examine No. 610's condition. By February 1977, the SOU and the 610 Foundation reached an agreement where the former would lease the locomotive for two years; the lease was later extended to three years. In March, Bill Purdie drove No. 610 under its own power via the MoPac, the
Illinois Central Gulf, and the SOU from Fort Worth to
Birmingham, Alabama. At
Mineola, Texas, the locomotive experienced a
hot box that had to be repaired while it stopped at Shreveport, and then it had go through flooded areas in
Mississippi. Upon arrival in Birmingham, No. 610 was moved inside the SOU's Norris Yard workshop in nearby
Irondale to be overhauled and repainted, in preparation for its first excursion runs on the railway.
Trains magazine editor David P. Morgan subsequently requested to SOU president
L. Stanley Crane that No. 610 operate with a test car in tow for a
dynamometer test. On August 20, while No. 610 pulled the
Piedmont Limited/610 special excursion from
Alexandria to
Monroe, Virginia, it towed SOU
research car No. R-2, with a team of researchers recording the locomotive's horsepower output. This excursion was also plagued with various problems: No. 610 derailed in the Alexandria yard and damaged its pilot axle, and the rerailing process delayed its departure by 1 hour; at Monroe, No. 610 had to be refueled because the pump between its tender and auxiliary car had seized up; at
Remington, the locomotive burned out a brass and journal in its pilot truck, so it had to be sidelined for repairs, while a GP18 and a
GP38-2 returned the train to Alexandria, with their combined horsepower being recorded; the problems postponed the train's return to Alexandria to 3:30 am. Crews subsequently had to replace No. 610's pilot bearings. On September 3, No. 610 pulled a doubleheader excursion with SOU No. 4501 on the
Norfolk and Western (N&W) mainline from Roanoke to
Lynchburg, and No. 610 returned to Roanoke with five cars. On September 4, No. 610 pulled an excursion from Roanoke to
Bluefield, West Virginia, but en route, as the locomotive traveled through Montgomery Tunnel, exhaust from its smokestack extinguished the fire in its firebox, and the locomotive's cab, crew, and first few passenger cars were blackened with smoke. No. 610 lead additional excursions throughout 1978, including the long-distance
Independence Limited in July from
Lexington, Kentucky to
Greensboro, North Carolina, but en route, near
Hot Springs, a key flew off from one of the locomotive's
crossheads, and it had to stay overnight in
Asheville while a replacement key was fabricated. In November, No. 610 hauled another excursion from Birmingham to
Sheffield, Alabama, but it broke down at the latter. As a locomotive built to travel through open terrains, the 2-10-4 also could not navigate some of the sharp turns scattered throughout the SOU's network. In 1980, the SOU decided to partially downsize their steam excursion fleet, and they began leasing
Chesapeake and Ohio 2716 to replace Nos. 610 and 2839 in the program. Having accumulated and carried 53,570 passengers on the SOU, No. 610 pulled its final excursion for the railway on January 24–25, 1981: a one-way excursion from Birmingham to
Memphis, Tennessee. It subsequently pulled a boxcar full of spare parts to Fort Worth.
Location changes and second retirement On January 29, No. 610 arrived at Fort Worth and was put into temporary storage near the
Federal Records Center. Since nearby mainline railroads still refused to host steam excursions on their right-of-way, the 610 Foundation decided to search for a location to display No. 610. On April 4, 1982, following two delays from trackage issues, No. 610 traveled to the foundation's new building on the property, the Quartermaster Depot, where a dedication ceremony was held. Following the death of Amon Carter, Jr. in July, the 610 Foundation began losing money to keep No. 610 maintained, and although Pearson still continued to explore ways to run it, he lost faith in using the locomotive for excursion service. During 1984 and 1985, a group in Dallas developed a $3 million-project called the
Texas Independence Express, an exhibit train that was planned to celebrate the 1986 Sesquicentennial of Texas, and No. 610 was chosen to pull the consist. But plans for the sesquicentennial train fell through after the group managed to raise only around $100,000, and surrounding railroads were reluctant to allow No. 610 on their mainline, fearing that its heavy weight would damage their computerized switches. During 1986, the GSA decided to redevelop the Quartermaster Depot property, so they ended their lease contract and the museum site where No. 610 sat had to shut down. With no sentiment to keep No. 610 maintained, the 610 Foundation decided to donate its locomotive in December to the Texas State Railroad (TSR), a tourist railroad that operates between
Rusk and Palestine. The Dallas group in charge of the cancelled sesquicentennial exhibit train donated their funds to help move No. 610, and the locomotive was removed from the Quartermaster Depot property and towed to the TSR's yard in Palestine. The TSR felt the No. 610 was too large for their small operations, but during the railroad's operating seasons they occasionally displayed the I-1AR near their depot for tourists and passengers to view. In May 2001, the TSR hosted events celebrating three anniversaries including the 25th of No. 610 hauling the American Freedom Train. ==See also==