Old TP 610

[Anonymous]

  I am a newbie on this forum. I am a retired railroad man, I was a carman/car inspector in the trainyard for the UP in Ft.Worth, Tx. I miss the trainyard, I worked straight midnights & there was always something interesting going on!! In 1974, while laid off from the AT&SF, I was fortunate enough to have helped refurbish the old TP 610 engine! It was a major undertaking too, but an interesting one! I still, to this very day have a piece of hammer steel in my right hand from trying to knock out a pin in the coupling that connects the tender to the loco itself! I was honored to have been able to put a 1976 nickle on the tracks in Cleburne, Texas when the "Freedom Train"  Came through & made her stop at the old Santa Fe depot in Cleburne in 1976, I carry it in my left front pocket daily as a token of remembrance of a time in my life when I was young, happy & healthy! My, but that old steamer was pretty & shiny, it looked great hooking it down the tracks, looked like a housefire on wheels, the way she would lay down that smoke screen!! She was a looker for sure!

[oldline1]

Hi, ole carknocker,

I lived in Arlington while the 610 was being rebuilt in the stockyards. I spent a lot of hours there cleaning and painting parts. She is a great looking engine and had a nice sound to her running gear when in motion. The whistle was one of the very best I've ever heard too.

The night she pulled the Freedom Train from FW to Dallas we chased her and got a great idea of what she was really like. On her trip back to FW with the train a week later we rode right next to her left cylinder through Grand Prarie and up the grade into the GM plant yard in Arlington. That was some sweet music! When she arrived at the Santa Fe station and cut off to trade places with the SP 4449 they parked just about 10-15 feet from each other and the heat given off by the fireboxes was welcome on that chilly February night.

I was also in Cleburne the day she brought the AFT through heading to FW. I remember how dirty her boiler jacket was with all the alkali from the steam condensing from her whistle.

When the Southern Ry leased her I got to chase her again from FW to Forney and saw some nice action.

What a shame she's stuffed and mounted in Palestine and not burning up the track somewhere.

Roger

[Anonymous]

  thanks for the response on my post, I was beginning to think that nobody ever did respond to anything here! I worked on the 610 while I was laid off in 1974 from the SantaFe, we probably worked together!! She sure enuff had a sweet sounding whistle, I love the sound of a steamer's whistle!! That is the most soul wrenching sound, it is right up there with a whipoorwill at midnight while listening to a Hank Williams song! LOL! I did not know for sure where she finally wound up, at least she is stored inside & hopefully not rusting away again like she was when we rebuilt her in the 70's! I was only 23 years old then, it only seems like yesterday that we saw her burning up the right-of -ways & that sweet, mournful whistle sending that music to my ears!