At Charlottesville, VA in 1978. Kind of hard to believe it ever ran at this late date:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=86290

What is the operable status of ex-T&P 610?

I think it would require quite a bit of work to run again, but is well kept in rollable condition in its own building at the Texas State RR.

The 610 would need a current Form 4 inspection, new tubes and firebox work. Running gear tram, axle weight equalization and pony truck axle runout need to be within proper limits if the engine is to resume the sort of 55 mph operation it performed northbound in Kentucky, enroute back to Cincinnati, when we paced and filmed it on July 16, 1977.

Where is the Charlottesville turntable right now? And, is the turntable at Clifton Forge still in place?

Bruce, I'm not sure what happened to the Charlottesville turntable, the only thing left there now is the abandoned coaling tower. The yard in Charlottesville was cut back to 4 tracks a number of years ago, and the extra real estate sold off for development. I believe there is an office building on the site of the roundhouse. The Clifton Forge turntable is intact and appears to still be operable, it and the shop buildings, along with a number of acres of adjacent land now belong to the town. Fellow RYPN'ers Doowoppie, Ben True, and myself visited there last Saturday.

Looked at the 610 last summer 2004. The engine is kept in a tin building and pulled out on Saturdays if you call ahead and tell them you want a picture. The track about 25 miles between Palistine and Rusk is too lite to run it on and curves are alittle tight , they had to be greased when it was moved there. The bridges all have been rebuilt to concrete from wood so they could carry it. There are no restoration-to-run plans till the track is all upgraded and the curves have new radius.

The 2248 SP engine in Grapevine is running again on weekends.

James

Thanks, Gary.

I shot video of the 1286 and 1238 being turned on the Clifton Forge turntable in October 1993. The last engine I saw ride the Charlottesville table was the 2839 in August 1979. The Charlottesville table was where some college buildings are now, and was already gone before the fall of 1993.

Both turntables were big enough to handle C&O's 2-6-6-6 Alleghenies, and I'd like to believe the Charlottesville table is stored in good order somewhere.