While looking for pictures of S&A 750's 1/28/194 return trip from service with the Southern/NS Steam program, I uncovered this photo of K&T 10 from my first visit to TVRM 8/21/1984. At the time they were working on K&T 10 as time and money permitted.

Paul Brock was the engineer that day and gave me my first cab ride. 722 was pulling the Missionary Ridge Local trips. I remember My dad and Mr. Brock talking about the "big Mike" we saw in the shop. Paul of course told us a bit about her history and that at the time the idea was to have her look like and NC&StL Mikado when it was finished. You can see the faint L & N on the Vanderbilt tender (which was not No. 10's original tender). I dug out my copy of Richard Prince's "NC&StL History and Steam Locomotives" and sure enough the K&T 10 could have made a pretty close replica of an NC&StL L-1.

So, what happened with this one? Did TVRM find too much wrong and pushed it into the weeds?

The simplest answer to why K&T 10 was not returned to operating status is that TVRM ended up with a lot of steam locomotives that were better candidates for their needs. At the time this picture was taken 722 and 630 were there on a long term loan from NS. NS retained the services of TVRM's 4501 - a swap if you will. (Some of this discussed here viewtopic.php?f=6&t=37494) Anyhow, we all know that the desires to get old No. X up and running often fall victim to a shortage of money and time. Keeping just one of the venerable 2-8-0s running at the time was more than enough to satisfy the steam needs and consumed the resources that would be needed to restore No. 10. Also, 4501 got sent home just 3 years after this picture was taken. By 1987 TRRM had 3 Southern/NS steam veterans to care for. Today No. 10 sits safely under the shed behind 2-8-0 No. 610.

I will say the look created by the Vanderbilt tender is really neat, and would have liked seeing the finished product. When you consider how well TVRM 610 turned out, I'm confident the result would have been awesome. Some more on No. 10 can be found here viewtopic.php?f=1&t=34912&hilit=+TVRM+Kentucky

Are #10 and the Vanderbilt tender still together? Always have liked that look. Pittsburg Shawmut and Northern had a fleet of 2-8-0s with Vanderbilt tenders.

Well, they're not "together" per se but I do believe that the Vandy tender is still on the property.

It is. It's on a siding between Tunnel blvd and Chickamauga Creek.

It sat for years on the tail track at Grand Junction until that was reconnected to the NS.