SR 154 (ETV&Ga 466) moved under her own power tonight for the first time in 58 years. She was built in 1890 and donated by the Southern Railway to the City of Knoxville in 1952 when she was placed in Chilhowie Park. The City transferred ownership to the Old Smokey chapter of the NRHS who cared for her for many years and who gave her to the Knoxville & Holston River Railroad in August 2008. KXHR moved her from the park and began a 100% ground up restoration that is now virtually complete. Her first test under steam was tonight. She will have her public debut on July 3 and will be featured at railfan day in August. For more information visit our website www.threeriversrambler.com.

Enormous thanks are due to Jeff Parrott and his crew who did a high quality restoration in a reasonable amount of time and at a reasonable cost. We are fortunate to have had Jeff in charge of this project.

Pete Claussen

Very impressive. Let me be first to say congratulations. Must schedule a trip out to Knoxville to see and ride behind her soon.

Possibly three different classes of Southern Railway 2-8-0s returning to service this year. Not a bad time to be a fan of SR motive power right now.
Kevin Gilliam

Pete,

Congratulations to you, Jeff, and everyone who worked on the 154. I look forward to seeing the engine run.

Alan Maples

Great news. All of the hard work will pay off. Please keep us posted and share some photos if possible. Thanks!

Congrats! This rebuild has been kept very quiet.

Pete -

Fantastic! It is wonderful that Southern #154 has been brought back to life.

Les

Pete,

Congratulations on a job well done. I've enjoyed visiting the Three Rivers Rambler several years ago and riding behind the 203. I am curious now that the 154 is up and running, will the 203 be going down for some shop time. Also, I know that 203 was converted from coal to oil, but a photo I've seen on the Southern 154 Facebook page indicates that the 154 is still coal-fired. Can anyone confirm this?

With that said, the 154 was built in 1890 making it 120 years old. How many other steam locomotives over 100 years of age are currently operating in the U.S. or in operating condition? The ones that come to mind in addition to 154 are:

Baltimore & Ohio William Mason (1856) at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore.
Eureka and Palisade No. 4 (Baldwin, 1875)
Louisville and Nashville 152 (Rogers, 1905) at the Kentucky Railway Museum

Coming Soon:

Southern 630 (Alco, 1904) at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga.
Southern 401 (December 1907)

Steven Ashley
Spartanburg, South Carolina

Just flipped through "Historic Trains Today" and counted 44 engines operating that are 100 years or older. And that's likely a rough estimate.

And of course, congrats on 154's restoration!

More photos and web content:

http://steamcentral.com/2010/03/19/sout ... -progress/ (from March, but with a photo)

Full-blown website: http://www.southern154.com/

http://www.southern154.com/restoration/031010.html March restoration update; photos at http://www.southern154.com/154-0310/

A few other oldies but goodies:

Cass Scenic No. 5 (Shay), 1905

Sierra No. 3 (1891)

Mount Washington Cog engines (various dates--the ones that are still available)

D&RGW 2-8-0s at Knotts Berry Farm, and the 315 as well

How old are the two K-27s that are still left? When were the two Baldwin stock 4-6-0s that still run built--an Alaskan engine on the Huckleberry and Tweetsie 12?

Although not currently running, let us recall that Southern 4501 and EBT 12 were both built in 1911, and will be 100 next year.

Anything else out there?

The Huckleberry #2 was built in 1920 by Baldwin, while the Tweetsie 12 was built by Baldwin in 1917.