I have read and heard rumors that Southern 630 may not pull some of the upcoming excursions due to some sort of repairs or technical issues. Is there any truth to this?

I have tickets for the Bristol-Radford excursion, and curiosity has gotten the better of me. I have not seen or heard anything about 630 since the Knoxville excursions last year. As I know that people involved in TVRM are active members of this forum, is it possible to receive an update on 630's status?

Thanks to all,
Brad

I don't know the current status, but two weeks ago (March 14th) it was in the shop with its cab off as new staybolts were being installed to support a new part of the crown sheet. Some internal work had to be done and it was just as easy to do all of the work at once. TVRM was working two shifts a day to get it ready for the trips.
4501 was getting the boiler insulation installed on the next track over after having passed its FRA tests.

I hope that nothing major was wrong with 630; I thought replacing a stay bolt now and then was "regular maintenance" for a steam locomotive.

I hope that the great preservationists at TVRM are able to get her fixed up soon! The 21st Century Steam trip out of Bristol in 2012 had a diesel substitution and I know a lot of people would be disappointed if this happened again.

Last I heard was that she was still supposed to haul all the scheduled trips (until 4501 comes along). I guess we will see on Saturday if she is running or not. But I have all faith in the TVRM guys in what they are doing. But someone from TVRM could probably shed a lot more light that I have.

I have faith in the TVRM crew also, but I know some things are out of their control. I hope they did not run into any unexpected problems that would affect the excursion schedule.

I found the following posted today on the "21st Century Steam Page" of tvrail.com:

"Note to March 29 & 30 Ticketholders:

Steam locomotives require continual effort to operate successfully. Winter shop work has been underway on Locomotive #630 since December. Repairs have been more extensive than expected, and therefore have taken longer than planned. We’re working around the clock to prepare the locomotive for this weekend’s excursions, but the possibility exists that the work will not be completed in time.

This message is to let you know that if 630 won’t be able to operate this weekend, Norfolk Southern is keeping one of their twenty commemorative “Heritage Units” in reserve to lead the excursions. This locomotive is a General Electric ES44AC built in 2012 and represents the Southern Railway with its classic green, imitation aluminum, and gold paint scheme.


We look forward to seeing you this weekend. Your ridership and support are very important to us because they allow the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum to keep historic railroading alive."

Apparently all the hard work that 630 did last season resulted in some unexpected wear and tear. During the Saturday Knoxville-Asheville Excursion last year, everyone was impressed by 630's performance when the diesels failed. On the way back to Knoxville (with a single gp38) her stack talk could even be heard from inside the coaches!

Regardless of the outcome of this rush to finish these repairs, I applaud the TVRM team for the rare gift of mainline steam in the 21st century.

Thank you TVRM (and Norfolk Southern)for your tireless devotion to bringing steam to the masses.



Brad

According to "NS Locos" facebook:

"NS Tyner Local is seen at Chattanooga , Tn. with the SR heritage unit in tow. The SR unit will power the TVRM excursions to Attallia , Al on sat , and to Oneida , Tn on sunday."

-photo credit NS Locos



Is 630 expected to be completed for the Bristol excursions?

This is quote I found posted on another forum. It is a quote from Trains Magazine newswire:

"Museum shop crews had to replace six cracked lug plates that were riveted to the boiler. These plates provide connection points to brace rods that support the rear portion of the boiler. To replace these lug plates, all bolts supporting the firebox crown sheet had to be removed. The crown sheet was also replaced as part of the repair. In addition, new portions of the firebox inner sheets were replaced resulting in a total of more than 400 staybolts being replaced in the firebox"

Termite7 had heard that this problem occurred last year during the Fall trips. 630 was not able to steam as she might...basically providing just enough steam to blow the whistle and so fourth. As soon as the season ended the engine went into the shops for this heavy repair, a contractor was brought in to do the work so they could get it done quickly without slowing down work on 4501. It is a rather complicated repair and may take a year to complete...hopefully less. I hear they work two shifts some days. TVRM had been a little tight-lipped about this problem...hoping the work would be done soon and nobody would notice.
T7

This sort of thing proves the value of a full class repair that 4501 is receiving. It would be interesting to find out if the root failure (ie: cracks in the lug plates) was caused by operational stress or metallurgical failure (if they were new(er) parts).

Going after other big ticket work is probably the most cost effective to complete while the engine is down and available to pursue such periodic maintenance issues, rather than raise the odds of a road failure in the future.

Michael Seitz
Missoula MT

According to the Southern 630 Facebook (see link https://www.facebook.com/tvrm630 ), the current status is as follows.

The hydro-test has been passed. The 4th driver is currently not under the locomotive as it had to be removed to complete the necessary repairs. See pictures by clicking above link.

Now a question for the steam gurus: Since the hydro-test has been completed, does that mean that the boiler/firebox repairs are complete?

Also, if anyone from TVRM is reading this, what must be completed between now and next weekend in order for 630 to be ready for the Bristol trips? (sorry if I'm beating a dead horse)

Well, that I can promise you is totally 100% false. For part of the first Knoxville to Asheville trip last November, the diesel-slug set failed. For a while, the 630 was the only engine providing power for the train....and she maintained the speed with a 14 car train and two dead diesels. That probably made the staybolt issue worse, but she performed admirably. A replacement diesel was used out of Asheville coming westbound, and although I missed it by running ahead, the sound from the 630 coming out up the hill out of White Pine Saturday night was something else. Another diesel was added in Knoxville for the Sunday run.

She was taken down immediately after those trips to make sure she was ready for the Spring schedule. Sounds like there was a bit more more that needed to be done once they got her apart. If you deal with steam enough, these things happen. Sounds like she should make the Bristol runs next weekend unless something unforseen happens.
Kevin

I was on that trip. Sou 630 proved herself to be more powerful than many thought. And boy did she sound good pulling the train at track speed; thunderous stack-talk echoed through the crisp night air!

Totally false? really? Then why have they been doing all this work? I know the slugs failed but that was at speed for a short duration.

When would you think this damage occurred? When the 630 was sitting cold in the engine house? It's a 100+ year-old boiler...stuff will happen.

T7

There is no question that some significant problems arose within 630's boiler/firebox. However it is probably difficult (or impossible) to pinpoint a specific event that would lead to affected parts' (lug plates, stay bolts, etc) failures. It could have been an issue that slowly arose over a period of months, or it could have happened during the course of a single excursion. Who knows........ Regardless, on the Saturday Knoxville-Asheville excursion this past November, 630 was fully capable of pulling the train on her own. As for after that, I do not know how well 630 was performing.

Maybe the experts at TVRM can fill us in at some point in time. The fact that they are ready (or nearly ready) to reassemble 630 is amazing considering the quantity of extensive repairs that were completed in just a matter of months.