Tennessee Valley Railroad 610 sit quietly under a shed on this hazy Sunday evening. The last time his small locomotive was under steam was the last quarter of the 2010 excursion season. The hardest working steam locomotive is under going a 1472 day boiler inspection to determent if the ex: US Army 2-8-0 will get another opportunity to get a new lead in life. TVRM 610 was built in 1952 by the Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton locomotive work as a last hooyah for steam in the 1950s. While most railroad were retiring their steam engines paving a way for the diesel locomotive, 610 was one of the few Steam locomotive that manage to take part of the golden age of steam. The locomotive itself was sent to the US Army and was put to use on the 31 mile long Fort Eustis Military Railroad til the end of the decade where at that time steam was laid to rest nationwide. By the 1960s where the 2-8-0 was worn down, and retired from revenue service, it was acquired by the Wiregrass Heritage Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society in Dothan, Alabama for static display til the til the late 70s when the piece was donated to the Tennessee Valley Railroad where it was restored in 1991 where it was put in to excursion service. Time when on, and the attention was drawn toward Southern Rwy 630, and 4501 when it was time for the two steam to be restored for excursion service as well. TVRM 610 in a sad sense look like it was treated as a red headed stepchild where all the attention is on the two popular Southern Rwy Steam, and the small 2-8-0 take the back seat wondering when that day, when that time will come where the little engine will come to life again.
